The Lost Soldier
by bsm117
Summary: Shepard is on a mission to stop the collector's. But before she has a chance to get her team into the best shape that they can be, she stumbles onto a ship named Forward Unto Dawn.Paragon Shepard, Spacer War Hero.
1. Chapter 1

The lost soldier

Chapter 1: New Arrival

Shepard had a huge problem, she had to destroy the collector base and survive. "I have the whole team ready but I need gain their trust or else we will all die."

Her thoughts were interrupted when Joker called on the comms, "Commander, EDI found something interesting on the radar."

Shepard simply replied, "I'm on my way Joker."

When Shepard walked over to the cockpit she was surprised to see what was on Joker's holographic display. It was a massive ship and what was slightly unsettling was the fact it seemed to be cut in half by some sort of energy weapon.

"Joker what is this thing."

Joker replied, "I have no idea but this was not by any known species."

"How do you know that?"

"Commander I'm not reading any traces of element zero anywhere, if it ever ran on it there would be some sort of sign."

"Edi what do you know."

"Shepard I just found something that will surprise you."

"What is it?"

"This is a ship that doesn't match any ship profiles from Cerberus or the Alliance but there is one feature that shows this is a human ship."

"That feature is?"

"Its name is on the hull and it is written in English."

The holographic display zoomed onto a small name that read Forward Unto Dawn.

"Holy Shit, EDI get my team into the briefing room we need to figure out what the hell were are going to do about that ship."

Ten minutes later in the briefing room Shepard started the briefing. "Okay people what we have is a ship that doesn't match any Citadel race ship profile, but its name is written in English."

"Shepard that ship is huge if we want to search it quickly we are going to have to bring everyone aboard." Garrus said

"We need to find new technology to fight the Collectors and this thing doesn't seem to run on eezo so imagine what technology we can find on that ship."

"EDI are there any life signs on board?" replied Miranda

"No Ms. Lawson, that entire ship is filled with nothing but vacuum."

"That's unfortunate; any survivors could have helped us adapt their technology to ours." Miranda sighed

"Well at least now we don't have worry about ambush. Bring your oxygen harnesses, and weapons anyway you never know what could happen. EDI what else do you know about this ship."

"Shepard while scanning the ship I detected one room that still has power but I could not learn anymore, I'm uploading you the coordinates now."

"Nice work EDI now we will split up into two teams. Legion, Thane, Miranda, Kasumi, Samara, and Jacob you're with me. The rest of you will be on the second team, Garrus you are in charge. Garrus go to the only room with power and see what you find; I'll go with my team and look everywhere else for anything interesting. If you find anything tell me."

"Okay commander" Garrus respectfully acknowledged.

"Joker can we dock anywhere or will we have to make a few trips with the shuttle."

"Sorry Commander you are going to have to take the shuttle."

"Alright, my team will go first then we will meet up with you Garrus."

"Okay lets go and get this done fast. I have a bad feeling about this." Garrus replied

After about twenty minutes of ferrying the team over they split up and started to explore.

_Garrus's POV_

"Okay people the room is around the next turn."

Tali stopped however and stared at the wall. Garrus walked over to see what was there and found an arrow the read Cryogenics. Well that explained why power would be there, that room might have had a few survivors but they should be all dead according to EDI.

As they entered the room Garrus noticed a holographic emitter in the center of the room and when he got within 3 feet of it a hologram came online. It simply asked "Is there anything I can I assist you with", in a monotone voice.

"Shepard we just found what looks to be a VI here you should come check this out."

"Okay Garrus we will be there in twenty minutes." Shepard responded

_Cortana's POV _

Cortana had set some of the electronic equipment outside the cryo bay that still functioned to ping her out of her standby mode if they detected motion. She had just switched to active mode when she realized what happened. She ran a diagnostic to make sure her systems were as good as they could be. After that she started tracking the movements of two different groups one was coming directly towards her while the other was going the exact opposite. When this first group arrived she decided she was going to act like a dumb AI so not to let on what she was.

In a calm monotone voice she asked, "Is there anything I can I assist you with."

The blue armored reptilian one told a "Shepard" that they found a VI and should come see. Cortana assumed this Shepard was the leader. She also noted that several of the creatures before her were mostly aliens she hadn't encountered before, and even stranger was the fact that there were two humans with them.

But before she had processed anymore data the blue armored one, probably the second in command, asked, "What is the mission of the vessel?"

Cortana simply said "This ship's general mission was to protect Earth and her colonies from any hostile forces. But the immediate mission of the vessel if classified and you do not have the necessary clearance to access that information."

The blue armored alien classified as Alpha seemed surprised and asked, "What cut this vessel in half?"

"This vessel suffered extreme damaged when traveling through a portal like device that teleported them from Earth to beyond the galaxy's edge. When the vessel tried to return through the portal, it shut down as half the ship had exited and resulted in extreme damage to all systems."

Alpha talked with the rest of the team he had with him and then asked her, "Is there any equipment that should be handled with extreme care?"

Cortana used her normal voice and responded, "There is that cryo pod over there that has the only living survivor of this ships mission." Cortana then shut of the energy to the holo pad as she didn't feel like talking anymore.

_Garrus's POV_

Garrus was extremely surprised that the VI might have turned out to be an AI. He turned toward Tali and asked, "Have you seen anything like that?"

Tali shrugged and said, "No, I haven't seen anything like that before but I'm fairly certain that was an AI. But before we decide what to do with it we should look at this living crew member."

Garrus agreed and signaled the rest of the team to go over to the cryo tube. But what was in the pod was mind baffling, a seven foot creature that had green body armor with a black under armor. Garrus stunned asked Mordin, "Is that thing alive and do humans really get that big."

Mordin rapidly replied, "Yes, display shows subject is alive, human may have naturally grown to height but is unlikely.

Tali then almost yelled, "Guys I think it's waking."

_Master Chief's POV_

When he woke up he felt like his whole skin was on fire, but that didn't alarm him. Freezer burn did that and he had experienced it many times. But when he opened his eyes and was alarmed when he saw six people around his pod, even worse was that only two were human, the other four were aliens. He then realized they knew he was awake because one of them pointed at him and the rest stared. They all pulled their weapons out. He knew this might be his only chance to attack first but he decided to keep them alive to interrogate.

_Garrus's POV_

The moment that he realized what was happening it was far too late. The green giant leaped out of his pod smashing the glass, knocking him down in the process. The green figure rose quickly then smashed Jack and Tali's heads together, knocking them out instantly. Grunt fared just as well because the figure jabbed Grunt several times in the head and stomach. It picked Grunt up with what looked like no effort at all and threw him into Zaeed. This resulted with two more knock outs. When he got up he found out Mordin was down as well. Garrus couldn't find it then heard a loud boo from behind. Garrus turned but when he finished turning he got an extremely hard punch to the stomach, his vision faded and all he saw was black.

_Master Chief's POV_

All the unknowns were safely knocked out but still alive. He was about to move them when he heard footsteps coming towards him. He hid by the door in the shadows. He saw one of them move in then pulled the emergency switch for the door, slamming it shut and locking it. He ran up grabbed her by throat before she could talk. Making sure not to choke her, he lifted her off her feet and brought her about an inch from his visor. Just by looking he could tell she was most likely the leader. There was nothing to confirm it but his gut said so and he learned to always trust his gut.

Using a calm but intimidating voice he asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Commander Shepard and I suggest you calm down or I will have my ship destroy what's left of this ship."

"That won't happen, not with your people still onboard."

Shepard sighed then said, "Threatening the only people who can give you a ride is a bad idea though."

Chief had figured around this though, he dragged Shepard over to a small weapons rack and grabbed a pistol. He also grabbed some loose metal from the ship made a steel "rope" keeping Shepard from moving her hands then reset the switch locking the door.


	2. Chapter 2

The lost soldier

Chapter 2: The new guy

_Miranda's POV_

It had been about two minutes since the door shut and sealed the Commander in. But the fact she hadn't contacted them once was strange. Interrupting her thoughts though was the fact the door opened. But more disturbing was the fact a seven foot tall human, well at least it appeared human, was holding Shepard and had a strange looking pistol pointed at Shepard's head.

Before anyone reacted, it commanded, "Don't think about taking out your weapons, you won't like what happens."

Thane grabbed the pistol from her waist but the giant simply shot it out of his hand. It calmly stated, "Don't try again, that was Shepard's only lucky break."

Miranda was shocked; he just shot a tiny target and had reacted fast. Very fast, if that person wasn't threatening them she would have tried recruiting it.

Trying to sound as calm as possible she asked, "What do you want."

"I want a ride to Earth."

"That's it?"

"That's all I need."

Miranda nodded; there might be a chance to recruit him later. Anyone who could capture Shepard was a true force to be reckoned with. Then this mysterious stranger nodded then took off what appeared to be solid steel he had shaped into crude restraints. As soon as Shepard was free it walked to a three foot pedestal and removed some sort of computer chip. Without any hint of emotion it said, "I'm going to get my equipment, I'll meet you for extraction." After saying that it simply walked away and disappeared quickly, it was clear he didn't want to be followed.

_Shepard's POV_

Miranda turned to her, shrugged then moved to help the others. Now her only worries were to make sure anyone on her team that had "up close experience" with him, didn't pick a fight and get them killed. That was going to be challenging. Looking in the corner she saw Grunt and Zaeed, then over to Jack. Talking to herself she said, "Fuck, why did I put the most hotheaded and stubborn people on the other team that ended up getting their asses kicked?"

Just then Garrus opened his eyes and asked "Am I dead?"

Shepard responded, "If you are you still have to help stop the collectors."

"Maybe I can scare them do death."

"Maybe"

"Well dying never stopped you, but what happened."

"You guys got your asses kicked."

"Now I remember, I almost won but he took a cheap shot."

"Don't try it."

"Why didn't he knock you guys out?"

"Well first I got captured and then we asked nicely."

"Then what happened."

"He let me go in exchange for a ride to Earth."

"I know you won't be expecting me to say this but we need to try and recruit him. We could use his skills and we need all the help we can get.

"I agree but lets wait until we are on the ship."

_Master Chief's POV_

That had gone much better than he expected. Now he could get to Earth and report to his superiors. His thoughts were interrupted though when Cortana said, "Chief something isn't right. You have been in that cryo tube for three months now. There is almost no chance the UNSC could have picked up our distress signal yet. Also there is almost no chance of finding seven different species in those three months."

"What are you trying to say Cortana?"

"Something isn't right, but when you get to the armory just carry everything you can and prioritize Covenant weaponry."

Chief nodded to voice his agreement. When he got to the armory he was glad the doors were partially open. It made forcing them open a lot easier. After getting everything he could he asked Cortana, "Do you know where they plan to extract?"

"Yes, there are in the Med lab. Well what's left of it anyway. Just follow the waypoints I put and you will be fine."

_Shepard's POV_

Shepard wasn't taking any chances; she had her crew leave first so when this mystery person showed up there wouldn't be any problems. Just then she heard, "I'm here." Shepard turned around and there he was. She had previously decided she needed a little more information about this guy. She calmly asked, "What's your name?"

"Master Chief."

"Not much of a name."

"It's not but for right now it's the best you can get."

Shepard shrugged and replied, "Fine, shuttle will be here in one minute, we can talk later."

Master Chief nodded, officially ending their discussion. When the shuttle arrived they got in and Shepard ended up having to endure the most awkward shuttle she had been on.

_Five minutes later Tali's POV_

Tali woke up to a nasty headache and to discover that she was in the Med Bay on the Normandy. As if on cue Dr. Chakwas walked over to her and said, "Tali, you sustained a concussion when you got knocked out. You are extremely lucky because you almost slipped into coma. But I'm happy that didn't happen, so will the commander when she gets back."

Tali remembering the green giant yelled, "Wait she isn't back yet."

Chakwas with a confused face answered, "No, everyone else is on board but her. She is on the shuttle ride back now."

Tali swore under her breath and grabbed her shotgun and ran to the elevator. When it got to her she got in and slammed the button that sent her to the Cargo Bay. When she got down there she noticed the doors were opening to let the shuttle in. Moving into a dark corner, she waited for the shuttle door to open. Just then the door opened and Shepard walked out but followed closely by the thing that attacked her. Running up she yelled, "Shepard watch out!"

_Shepard's POV  
><em>Reacting quickly, Shepard spun and at the same time put herself between Master Chief and Tali's shotgun. Also yelling "Tali don't shoot he's a friend!"

Tali looked unconvinced replied, "Shepard this person almost put me in a coma, and friends don't do that."

The armored man simply replied, "Oops."

Shepard shot him a nasty look and asked Tali, "What would you do if you woke up and found six unknown people pointing guns at you?"

Tali gave in and replied, "I would kill them, and he kept me alive-

He interrupted, "I didn't kill any of you."

This had an obvious effect on Tali. She put the gun down and shrugged. Quietly reply she said, "Yeah I don't blame you and thank you for not killing me. Tali then walked into the elevator and left.

Shepard turned toward the Master Chief and said, "We should introduce you to the crew."

_Twenty Minutes Later Legion's POV_

Legion had just taken the ride for the crew quarters to the CIC because Shepard required a meeting with all of her specialists, and Legion knew why. This meeting was to introduce the organic they had meet during the last mission to the remaining crew that was not aware of the deal that Miranda Lawson had made to free Shepard. This had its risks though as Grunt, Zaeed and Jack had been incapacitated by this same organic. Chances of violence were at roughly 67.9849%.

Just as Legion walked into the briefing room things were going worse than expected. Shepard was standing in front of the new organic. Grunt, Zaeed and Jack had their guns trained on it. The only thing preventing a crisis was Shepard standing in front of it. That reason wasn't going to be enough for long.

_Shepard's POV_

Legion just walked in as hell was starting to brake lose. Shepard yelled, "Stand down people, that's an order."

Jack yelled back, "Fuck that this guy attacked us on the ship, he needs to die."

Shepard figured out how to solve this. She replied, "Jack, you know that's its harder to capture someone than it is to kill them. If he knocked six of you out in thirty seconds, how long do you think it would take for him to kill you? Legion how much time do you estimate."

"Shepard Commander, they would most likely be killed in 16.78 seconds."

She then looked at Jack and asked, "Do you like those odds?"

Jack then put her weapon away, which at the same time persuaded the others to do so. Jack replied, "Fine, I won't cause trouble unless he starts it."

Master Chief speaking for himself replied, "That's perfectly fair."

Shepard smiled to herself, this Master Chief may be a solider at heart but he did have some diplomatic experience. That could help make things run smoother from now on.

Going on with her introductions she named each of the team one by one then said, "This is Master Chief with the Systems Alliance."

Before she could continue however Master Chief turned towards her and asked, "What's the Systems Alliance?" 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Finding Answers

_Shepard's POV_

Shepard was at a loss for words, the Master Chief was a soldier it was obvious. But what human soldier had never heard of the Alliance. Something was wrong here and everyone knew it.

Shepard replied cautiously, "The Alliance is the representative body of Earth and her colonies."

The Master Chief looked down and slightly shook his head. It was clear he thought something was missing but decided not to voice it. He simply started to walk towards the door. Seeming like he just remembered something, he asked, "Where are my quarters?'

Shepard responded, "Well I'm going to assume that you don't want somewhere where people usually are. The only place left like that is the cargo hold but it's a little uncomfortable down there.

The Master Chief simply responded, "It will be fine." The doors shut behind him.

_Master Chief's POV_

As the Master Chief walked towards the elevator he took time to look around. What he saw before him was without a doubt the most advanced human warship he had ever been on. There were holographic displays everywhere. Usually there might have been one holographic display on a UNSC ship, but that was always for the AI's avatar. In a way this ship reminded him of the few Covenant vessels he had been on. The ship was so sleek, almost like a fish, unlike the almost square look inside a UNSC vessel. It was very nice to see humans having this kind of technology. But what worried him was the fact about this Alliance being the face of humanity. What happened to the UNSC? It was almost like it had never existed. Like the Covenant war had never happened.

Thinking rather than speaking, he asked Cortana, "What do you think is going on here?"

"Well Chief I have two possible answers, neither of them are good. The first possibility is that we are catching a ride with mentally ill people that have mutated freaks with them."

"Cortana, that's the best you can come up with."

"Of course not, it was meant to make me feel better considering the other option."

This caught the Chief's attention, if Cortana was this nervous, that other possibility was bad.

"Continue"

"Well you know that the forerunner portal that was on Earth was a massive and much more advanced slip space drive, right?"

"Yes"

"Well, when our drives activate they rip space open. There was a theory if you had a powerful enough drive you can end up in an alternate universe. But humanity couldn't test that because with our level of technology, the drive would have to be the size of the moon just by itself. But I think the forerunner portal was powerful enough. Plus I have a feeling that when it shut down it caused something that forced our half of the Forward Unto Dawn to enter this other reality."

"Cortana if you are right, what now."

"Well first you should probably get some more information just to be sure. If I am right go, join this Alliance military and serve humanity that way."

"I'm going to information from Shepard; let's hope your first theory is right."

_Shepard's POV_

It had been about ten minutes since the meeting between the crew and the Chief. It was sad it had gone that bad but at the same time not very surprising. Shepard just hoped that this ship wouldn't turn into a warzone by the end of this trip. Just as Shepard started to zone out the door opened and she fell. Getting up quickly, she discovered who had just come into the briefing room.

The Chief asked, "Shepard, I need information about what's going on around here. I have a theory about why I'm here but I need some star charts."

"What does star charts have to do with what happened to you?"

"I have a theory but you are going to have to make a leap of faith here." 

Shepard paused for a moment; it was obvious he was holding something back. She hated when people did that, it usually led to someone betraying you. But she did want answers to this man's strange behavior.

Reluctantly she replied, "Fine, have the data, it's not like you can kill us with it."

It was kind of funny in a sad way, if he wanted to kill everyone on board all he would have to do is put his mind to it. If he did that, Shepard and everyone aboard were as good as dead.

"EDI, I need a copy of our star chart for the Master Chief."

"Shepard I'm transporting the data to your data pad now."

"Thanks EDI"

Shepard grabbed the data pad and checked over it to make sure the download was done. After confirming this she handed it to the Chief. He nodded and walked out the door without saying another word. It was unsettling how little he talked; he seemed to be depressed. It was a concern Shepard took careful notice of. It was also a good idea to get him checked by Chakwas, hopefully without pissing him off.

_Miranda's POV_

Miranda decided she should try and learn more about the Master Chief. After all the Illusive man would be very interested to hear about a seven foot human soldier that knocked out half the squad and captured Shepard. It was also a possible chance to recruit him to Cerberus. By the skills he displayed he could be more useful as an assassin than Kai Leng, the top wet work operative in the whole organization. That was incredible indeed because the little information she had on him suggested he was extremely good at his job.

She was about to reach the elevator when all of a sudden Joker came on the comm. saying, "Shepard's suicide squad report to the briefing room."

Miranda frowned; she hated everyone who knew about the mission saying they were most likely going to die. It made her feel she had no chance to survive, but unfortunately they had a point. Taking on the collectors outside their home world was very risky. She stopped her now pessimistic thoughts and headed to the briefing room. As soon as she opened the door she saw Master Chief leaning against the wall. It was strange their new passenger was here as well; maybe this had something to do with him.

As she stepped in Shepard looked up and said, "We have a lot to talk about."

_20 minutes earlier Shepard's POV_

Shepard had just finished talking to the Illusive Man about Mater Chief. He was kind of angry about her not telling him Master Chief was on board one of the most expensive ships he had. Shepard had politely told him to go fuck himself. After all she was in charge, hated Cerberus and loved to piss the Illusive man off. But he had a point as usual unfortunately; Master Chief could go berserk and kill everyone on board. That was not very comforting but he had shown a lot of self control so far. That was promising because some of her teammates barely had any.

Just as she started to drift away into her mind the doors opened. Before was Master Chief, even though she had some time to get used to him he was still very intimidating. That frustrated her, if she couldn't learn to accept this person as a fellow human inside of a killing machine she could never bring herself to even try to recruit him.

He calmly said, "Shepard we need to talk."

"What about"

"I know you are going to have a hard time accepting this but I am not from the same reality you are."

Shepard was more than confused now, she was terrified that the Master Chief had now lost it and was in some sort of delusion.

"Shepard I know what you are thinking that I'm insane, but I have proof that I'm telling the truth."

"What proof is that?"

"I have combat videos of a thirty year that humanity to an inch from extinction."

Shepard arched her brow up; this sounded like the reapers had come in to the galaxy and almost won. But this had to be at least thirty years in the future to make chronological sense. But considering how advanced his armor seemed to be it would be more likely two hundred years in the future. Plus how could someone going back in time.

"Who was this war with?"

"A group of races called the Covenant that had almost finished genocide on the human race, they used to exist in this reality but all of their stars went supernova rapidly that seemed to have almost happened too fast for someone not to have triggered it. It seems as if someone had killed them all and destroyed all the evidence."

This really got her attention; the star at Haestrom was going under extremely rapid deterioration that would eventually lead to the star going supernova and someone believed it too was artificial.

"Which star systems are you talking about?"

The Master Chief gave her back the data pad that she had given him, on it was the map of the Milky Way galaxy. On the map it highlighted several systems that weren't ever recorded on any star map by any race she knew of.

"As I read from your extranet I located several systems in my galaxy that were never there before."

Now the home worlds of the Asari, Turian, Krogan, Salarian, and all other species that she had ever known of were not even in existence in this man's galaxy or delusion.

"I know you still don't believe me, I sure wouldn't if I were you. But have you ever been in a situation that you are telling the truth, insane truth but none the less truth?"

It was strange that he described the way Shepard had been when she told the council about Sovereign being in charge not Saren.

"Fine I will take a leap of faith here but I need actual proof here before anything else happens."

"Do you have any screens where I can play the videos I have of me during my war?"

"This data pad should do."

The Master Chief downloaded a massive file onto the pad and then handed it to Shepard. As it played she saw something that blew her mind. A huge ring that supported an Earth like environment that easily dwarfed the citadel appeared. Just when she thought that nothing else would surprise her she saw battles the Master Chief had been in on this strange structure. It showed several species she never even seen before, but the weird thing was that each sort of resembled another race she knew. There were short ones that looked like Volus another that looked like bigger Turians. Then some sort of creatures appeared that looked like mutated ones she had seen, but when one of these things showed up that looked like a human she had a feeling that these things were like the husks.

Master Chief looked and said, "That's the flood, they are a parasitic life form that attaches on to the host the uses it nervous system to take control of the body. They are sort of like what humans used to call zombies back when Earth was the only human controlled planet. The worst thing about them though is if you put them down they almost always get back up and only one is needed to destroy species."

Shepard was awestruck but disgusted at the same time. On one hand if someone could control these things they would have the perfect weapon. But on the other hand you had an abomination of a weapon that had to start with some of your people to make it work.

"I believe you; you are not from my universe. And after you showed me this I'm glad you're not but now what are you going to do?

_Master Chief's POV_

Cortana had told him that he could sign up for the human military but something told him that wouldn't make a difference really.

He asked, "What are you doing Shepard, I've gotten pieces of your file. You're a war hero; you have to be doing something important."

"I'm fighting what we call the reapers; they are giant sentient warships that every now and then destroy all organic life in the galaxy. They are coming around again and I'm making sure the reapers lose for the first time in millions, maybe billions of years."

"Well normally I wouldn't believe that but considering what has happened to me in the last few hours I am willing to believe that."

"Well would you help me?"

"No"

"No?"

"Shepard I also know that you work for terrorists, the reason I was ever chosen to be what I am is because of a very bloody civil war."

"I don't work for terrorists. I died, they rebuilt me then showed me proof that the reapers were coming and no one else wanted to believe I was telling the truth."

That got to him; he wasn't used to terrorists trying to elevate humanity as his info on Cerberus said, he was used to ones trying to bring it down. It was a little surprising that the Alliance wouldn't believe one of their top soldiers. If he had told the UNSC about something like this they would start taking steps to stop them. That's when it struck him; the UNSC would believe him because they were already facing extinction. The Alliance wouldn't believe Shepard because they wouldn't want to believe they were threatened.

Shepard asked, "Please I know what you are thinking, but you have to believe the only reasons I work with them is because I can't do this alone. I'm just asking you to help me not swear allegiance to Cerberus."

That's when he decided, "Fine Shepard I'll help."

"Good well I guess we should tell the crew then. Joker, get the team up to the briefing room."

"Sure Commander"

_After briefing Shepard's POV_

The briefing didn't go as bad as expected. No one had shot a mean glance let alone pull out a gun. But Shepard had a feeling that some grudges would resurface.

Shepard realized she needed to warn Miranda about the Chief's anti-terrorist feelings.

She asked EDI "Where is Miranda?"

"Ms. Lawson is in Master Chief's quarters."

"Damn it"

**Hey guys I have a few things I need to clear up before anyone gets confused, in the first chapter I showed that I had everyone on the team you can get but no one is loyal yet. The reaper IFF won't be installed in till the last loyalty mission or maybe earlier i haven't decided on that yet so please no one ask about that since I already answered that possible question. Sorry about how this new chapter has no action. I really needed for Master Chief to really learn what was happened to him before he joined Shepard's team and I wanted to give that point some serious attention. Also thank you guys for reading this and I'm sorry the third chapter came along so long after the second.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Chasing the Shadows

_Miranda's POV_

The briefing had just ended and Miranda rushed to the elevator so she could finally have the chance to recruit the Master Chief to Cerberus. As the elevator opened Miranda dropped one of the new bugs she used to monitor the rest of the ship. She hadn't bugged the cargo bay because no one was really ever there, so it seemed like a waste. But now things have changed, that was one of the biggest understatements of all time. Now they had a seven foot killing machine that beat a perfect Krogan down in hand to hand combat easily.

Now she finally turned the corner and saw Master Chief just sitting there almost like he was having a conversation with someone except he wasn't talking and no one was there to talk to.

_Master Chief's POV_

"Cortana I know what I am doing. I need to gain Shepard's trust if I'm going to get anywhere."

"I know that but you may have put her even more on edge. Most people wouldn't believe the story you gave her."

"It wasn't a story."

"To her it probably is."

"Well sometimes it is better to just say the truth."

"Maybe this isn't one of those times."

This was getting the Master Chief nowhere. He had been arguing with Cortana ever since he got out of the briefing. Then he heard a strange sound of something falling, it wasn't something like a bolt or something that came out of the wall. More like the type of listening devices he had once used back when he was fighting the insurrection, he made a mental note to go check it out later. Just then Shepard's second in command came in. Her name was Miranda and one of the top members at Cerberus. He wouldn't kill her but he remained on edge whenever one of the crew that worked for the Illusive Man was around. It was strange, excluding the members that manned the ship there were only two that had been working as a Cerberus member before Shepard had showed up.

She approached and asked, "Are you ok Chief?"

"Yes I'm fine, is there something you need?"

"Yes I came down here to ask if you would join-"

"No"

"You didn't even let me answer my question."

"You didn't need to, I don't work for terrorists."

"We are people who are fighting for what we believe in, don't you do that?"

"Not with your methods. I don't force people to become an abomination like Cerberus did at Project Overlord."

_Miranda's POV_

That was something she didn't expect him to say, and she knew it showed. How did he know about that, Shepard had dealt with that problem before he had arrived?

"How do you know about that?"

"Your Illusive Man uses some very weak encryption. I was able to pick it up and decode it."

Miranda didn't believe him and said, "He uses the best money can buy."

"Then that just shows how weak your technology is."

"What do you mean by "your technology"?"

"Ask Shepard if you want to know."

He then proceeded to sit down and just ignore her. Realizing he was sending a message that he wasn't going to talk to her anymore she started to leave, until the Master Chief said, "Miranda".

"Yes?"

"Don't ever bug my quarters again."

Miranda's face turned bright red; he had heard her place the first bug. How, that would require super human hearing? She walked swiftly to the door before he took any more of her pride away.

_20 Minutes Later Shepard's POV_

"Shepard we are about twenty minutes out from Illium."

"Thanks Joker"

Now this was usually where Shepard started to really think about the mission ahead of her. This one was a little different than the rest she had done so far, it had nothing to do with the collectors. She was going to give Liara the information she needed to finally track down the Shadow Broker. The stakes were huge here; if the Shadow broker got wind of this he would send the best after her. Unfortunately the Shadow broker knew almost everything.

"EDI"

"Yes Shepard"

"Call Legion and Master Chief up to the briefing room, they are coming with me on the next mission."

"Alright Shepard"

_Master Chief's POV _

"Master Chief, Shepard wants to talk with you in the briefing room."

"Tell her I will be there in a few minutes."

That was odd; they had been talking with each other an hour ago. What could have happened? But maybe it wasn't something bad; EDI probably would have shown some signs of worry if it was. Maybe she needed him for a mission already. These questions weren't getting anything done but stalling him so he stopped thinking and got in the elevator.

_Shepard's POV_

This mission was going to dangerous, if the Chief wasn't as good as she thought he was; they could pay the price. But if things get bad the back up team was ready, but she doubted that they could get there in time.

The door opened and before her stood a seven foot killing machine as far as she could tell, and a mystery.

"Master Chief, I'm taking you on my next mission. I hope you are ready, it will be dangerous."

"I'm ready ma'am. But what are we going to be doing?"

"A friend of mine is chasing a ruthless information broker, one who almost sold my body to the Collectors."

"Your body?"

"I better explain that, two years ago I was killed when my vessel was attacked by a Collector vessel. He stole my body to sell to them. My friend who we will be meeting shortly rescued my body, who then took me to Cerberus who revived me."

"That is one hell of a story."

"So was yours"

"Fair point"

"Cerberus found out some information that could lead us to the Shadow Broker himself."

"And he probably already knows and is going to try and get the data back."

Shepard smiled, this man was smart. Much more than the average person she dealt with on a regular basis.

"Yes"

"Tell me when it's time to move out."

"We just landed so let's go."

_Shepard's POV 45 Minutes later_

This was mission was really starting to worry Shepard. Liara had already been shot at and now the Shadow Broker bombed the building and had sent his private army. Shepard opened the door to see a metal object flying towards her.

She yelled, "Flash bang watch out!"

But it was too late and Shepard dove behind cover just as it went off. Giving her a temporary image of what was there as it went off. As she was struggling to recover she heard several bangs followed by someone pulling her up. She tried to shake the enemy off but it didn't budge.

"Calm down Shepard it's me"

"Thanks Chief, where is Legion"

"Here Shepard Commander, optical sensors were temporarily overloaded."

"Were made it, Sekat should be on the other side of the door."

Just then a gunshot rang out. It was from the other side of the door, that wasn't good. Sekat hadn't seemed to be much a fighter. He was probably already dead. As they move d to breach the door a second shot was fired. As the door opened they found Vasir standing over a dead Broker Agent and Sekat. Sekat was dead, no doubt about that.

"Damn it. If I had been a few seconds faster, I could've stopped them."

"This Sekat?"

"Has to be, face is the same as on the message. Plus only person we've seen with a gunshot wound to the head ."

"Your armored friend here is direct but he has a point. Did you find your friend's body?"

"You mean this body."

Shepard turned surprised to hear Liara, but got nervous the second she saw Liara with her gun aimed on Vasir.

"Liara this is Vasir. She's a spectre."

"This is the woman who tried to kill me."

"You've had a rough day, I'll give you that. How about you put that gun down."

"I doubled back after I left. I watched you break into my home."

"You didn't know where Liara went, because she hid the message. You needed me to find it for you."

"Thanks for the help."

"She found Sekat, took his data, then killed him. I'm guessing she still has the disk on her."

"Good guess. Not that you'll ever see what's on it you pure blood bitch!"

The next few seconds were fast; Liara used to deflect the shards of glass going towards them, then Shepard grabbed on to Vasir and wrestled her off the ledge. But Vasir used her biotics to position herself to kick Shepard off. Shepard landed hard, but as soon as Vasir started to think about finishing her off, Master Chief landed in front of Vasir. He delivered a punch to Vasir's Chest that sent her flying to the other side of the room. The only reason she didn't fly into the wall was because she used her biotics to stop her mid flight, as Shepard got up she watch Liara use her own biotics to get down. But as soon as she touched the ground however she made a dash after Vasir without a backwards look. As soon as Liara got out of the room several Shadow Broker soldiers came in, and another flash bang started to fly towards the Chief.

"Chief watch out!"

But not even the Chief's super human abilities were enough to get him out of danger. The flash bang exploded, and the chief was struggling to get out of the line of fire. Shepard put in a burst in the first agent that looked in the chief's direction. But to Shepard's dismay, more of the troops were pouring out and she couldn't cover the Chief much longer.

"Chief get down, you are going to get killed if you don't!"

But the Chief couldn't get out of the way, almost like the suit was partially shut down from the flash bang. Shepard had enough and rushed to drag him out of the way, but met an extremely unexpected snag. The Chief seemed to way a ton and even the upgrades Cerberus made to her when she died hardly helped.

Shepard realized this was going to get them both killed and as she looked she found that an agent pulled out his rocket launcher and was preparing to fire. But as Shepard tried to pull out the unexpected happened. A long blade appeared in the agent's throat, and when he pulled it out he instantly fell down and was dead before he hit the floor.

The agents started a retreat, probably leaving a fight they could have won. The Chief rose silently, and when Shepard was about to ask he replied, "I'm fine the armor systems overloaded causing it to shut down, it won't happen again."

"Just glad you're ok, come on we've got a spectre to catch."

**Sorry guys that I updated so late, I've been real busy since school started. Hope you enjoyed, have any questions just feel free to ask and I'll try and get back to you. Hopefully I can start getting past my writers block and really start getting these stories out more quickly.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: A Dangerous Game

_Shepard's POV_

It took ten minutes to catch up to Vasir, but they managed it. They had to go through three squads to get to here. Shepard turned the corner to see Liara firing at Vasir. Vasir met Shepard's gaze and did exactly what Shepard was not expecting, she jumped off the building. However as Shepard ran to check on Liara a skycar rose from where Vasir had jumped. It sped off before Shepard could get a good look at the pilot, but Shepard's gut told her that it was Vasir. Shepard jumped in with Liara and the Chief; unfortunately Legion had to stay behind as the car only had three seats.

Shepard found Vasir but the following chase was brutal. At least two trucks were destroyed, along with several smaller shuttles. When Shepard finally caught up Vasir rammed her. But Shepard shoved back, and hard. Shepard sent Vasir's car straight into the path of another one, and Vasir lost control. Vasir crashed in what appeared to be some sort of resort.

Shepard landed the car in the parking area, and started running for the entrance into the resort.

"Shepard, watch out!" yelled Liara

Shepard looked back to see a truck filled with the Broker's mercenaries flying in. Shepard rolled to the side as landed in front of the entrance.

Everyone opened fire, it was insanity. Shepard couldn't stick her head out of cover to see where the enemy was. However this didn't stop the Chief from just running in there with his shotgun. Shepard heard a few Salarian screams, and a rather sick pop. Shepard looked over to see the Chief toss the lifeless corpse of a human trooper to the ground.

Liara tapped Shepard on the shoulder, and when Shepard looked at her all Liara did was raise one of her brows.

"I'll explain later." Remarked Shepard

Just then a bullet struck the car next to her, and when Shepard turned around there was another truck headed straight towards them. Before she could return fire the Chief threw some sort o blue device that stuck to the front. Three seconds later it exploded sending the truck straight into the wall to their right. It made a large enough hole so that they should get inside, and find Vasir.

Shepard looked to the Chief and asked, "What was that?"

"A grenade." The chief said

The team climbed through the hole and started clearing room to room. There were a few Mech corpses here and there but she didn't see any civilian bodies. At least Vasir spared the civilians.

Shepard looked at one of the of the TV screens to find several Asari dancers, or strippers dancing as an advertisement.

Shepard's curiosity got the better of her, so she asked "What kind of hotel is this?"

"Azure. It's a luxury resort with an… exotic edge. 'Azure' is slang for a part of the Asari body in some areas of Illium. "

"Where?"

"Mainly the lower reaches, near the bottom."

"I meant where on the Asari body."

"So did I."

Everyone headed towards the door when the Chief stated, "Looks like we're getting closer, the blood is getting closer together, she's slowing down."

Shepard opened the door, and saw Vasir go around the next corner.

"She just went around the corner."

When they caught up to Vasir Liara said, "Vasir, it's over."

Before Shepard could react Vasir grabbed a hostage, but before she could say anything a shot rang and Vasir's pistol flew out of her grip.

Shepard was about to chastise the Chief about how that was a dangerous move for him to take but Vasir pulled out an assault rifle and started to open fire.

The whole battle was going nowhere, the team would bring Vasir's barriers down but then she would just use her biotics to get to the roof, but Vasir was too stubborn to retreat, as she seemed to want to prove to Shepard that she was a better Spectre.

Again Shepard brought down her barriers, but as she used her charge the Chief jumped into the air and grabbed Vasir and slammed into the ground hard. She was struggling to get up when he shot her in the leg, and the shot went straight through.

However Vasir wasn't done as she used her charge to get some distance from the Chief before he could finish her off. That was the turning point for the battle because she couldn't put enough weight on her leg to use her charge again. It was just a matter of minutes before Shepard shot her in the side. Vasir collapsed and crawled over to the wall.

She screamed, "Damn it! Damn it!"

Liara went over to her and grabbed the data disc from one of the armor's pockets.

As Shepard started to walk away Vasir started to speak, but not to her. Shepard turned around to see the Chief talking to her quietly.

Vasir didn't say much else after that, the bullet wound Shepard gave her was lethal but not that painful, however the leg wound was. She slumped over, her eyes glazed. She was dead, and there was nothing that Shepard could or wanted to do to help her.

What happened next surprised Shepard immensely; the Chief closed her eyes, put her on the ground and crossed her arms over her chest.

Shepard asked, "Do you think she deserves that?"

"She was a spectre, she must have done some good before, and in death everyone deserves respect, even the enemy."

Shepard arched her brow; he was one of the most deadly and unemotional soldiers she had ever seen, and now he had this almost Thane like mentality. But Shepard realized it was probably better to ask about this later.

Shepard went to get details from Liara, but found herself stopping her three times just to try and figure out what had happened to her as a person. Being indifferent about innocent deaths, that was not the Liara she knew.

As they approached the Normandy the Chief asked, "What is going to happen after the Shadow Broker is dead, and we save Feron?"

"I haven't thought that far ahead." Remarked Liara

"Can you come with us, I need all the help I can get." Commented Shepard

"Maybe I don't know, assuming I survive this then maybe, it just depends on the circumstances, but I will need to help Feron get back to health first. I doubt the Broker has kept him in perfect health."

Shepard just nodded, seeing as this could turn into a sensitive subject real fast.

_Master Chief's POV_

John came down to the cargo deck as soon as he, Shepard and Liara returned to the Normandy. He walked over to his make shift bed and tried to just lie down. But after five minutes he couldn't fall asleep so he considered reading more from the codex that EDI had made for him; however he started working on his pet project of building his own omni tool instead. He reviewed some schematics on the extranet and was convinced that he should get one. But instead of just asking one he figured that building one would be a nice distraction between missions.

Before long he finished the power conduits and was ready to activate it when Cortana said, "That isn't going to work."

"Why not."

"You put that circuit in backwards, it won't activate, it will just blow up."

John looked over the schematics again and came to the conclusion that he made it correctly.

"No this is right."

"Whatever watch what happens."

John turned it on and power started to regulate through the whole circuit.

"Told you…"

Then the circuit exploded in a shower of sparks.

"Were you going to say something?" asked Cortana her words covered in sarcasm.

He didn't answer, he wasn't irritated at the fact that she was right but he was wrong.

"Something wrong?" asked voice that didn't belong to Cortana

John turned around to see Liara approaching, it was rather surprising to John as he thought she was too obsessed with the Shadow Broker to being doing anything else.

"No just trying to build my own omni tool." He answered

"You need help?"

"No I'm fine; it's just something to help past the time anyway."

Liara unfolded a chair she had brought with her and sat down. She didn't say anything, she just seemed to analyze him, but he wasn't bothered by this, a lot of soldiers back in his reality did the same thing.

"Shepard told me about your unique circumstances about how you got here, and I was more than a little shocked. She also told me about your war that you have been fighting for most of your life, I was a little curious so I decided to see if you would talk about it."

"I'm assuming Shepard told you that I wasn't going to say anything."

Liara replied, "Yeah she did, and I was considering it a lost cause since you haven't even told anyone your name, but I thought that the worst that could wrong was that you wouldn't say anything, or you might be able to humble me into leaving like you did to Miranda."

"You heard about that?"

"EDI watched the whole thing, told Shepard, and then Shepard told me. She said that see couldn't stop laughing when EDI told her."

John felt his lips make a faint smile, then thought to himself when was the last time I did that?

John was tempted not to tell her anything but he found himself liking Liara. He couldn't figure out why, he just did. He found that ever since he joined this crew his usual anti social behavior towards the people he worked with starting to dissolve.

"What do you want to know?"

This must have surprised Liara because her brow immediately arched.

"Well first how did you become a soldier in the first place?"

"Well towards the outer space of the UNSC space separatists started to manifest, it was mainly negotiations at first, but eventually some of the radical separatists started to use terrorism. Then the UNSC sprung into action trying to quell the rebellions. It was becoming a long war, with a lot of casualties. So they decided create a super soldier program to finally bring an end to the war."

"So you volunteered for this program?"

"No, they needed young test subjects. They kidnapped me and seventy four other children. We were all about five or six years old at the time."

Liara was horrified over this, she almost yelled, "They kidnapped children to turn them into soldiers?"

"Yes, but I don't hate what happened to me. It actually saved me in a way. The Covenant eventually reached the world I was born on and destroyed it. The Spartan Program in a way saved me."

"Who was the Covenant?"

"A collection of alien life unified by religion, they saw humanity as a sort of Heresy."

"What did they do to prisoners then if they were heresy?"

"Nothing, there never were prisoners."

"Then they just killed everyone on a planet when they invaded, how did they manage that?"

"They would use their plasma cannons to bombard every centimeter of any conquered planet, left it unusable."

"I'm so sorry, that must have been brutal."

"It was."

Liara stood up, folded her chair and said, "I doubt you want to relive this, I'll let you rest."

"Thanks."

She nodded and proceeded to the elevator, leaving him alone... almost.

"Wow, I've never heard you say so much in one conversation." said Cortana

"Neither have I." he answered back

_Liara's POV_

As the elevator rose Liara couldn't help but think about what this Master Chief had told her. How could a government authorize using children as soldiers? But Liara knew the answer already, the possibility extinction made people make decisions as horrific as those.

The elevator opened, and Liara was just a little surprised to see Shepard there.

"Liara, we should be at the base in a few hours."

"Good"

"Is something wrong Liara?"

Liara was about to spill her guts about what the Chief had told her, but she reconsidered. If he hadn't told Shepard then perhaps he didn't really want her to know.

"Well not me. Ask the Chief, he might tell you."

"He actually told you something."

Liara had a slight grin on her face when she answered, "Yeah he did, I'm as surprised as you. He doesn't seem to be that heartless killing machine you describe him as."

As Liara started to walk away Shepard asked, "What do you see him as."

Liara turned towards Shepard, no longer smiling, and said, "The kind of man who has forgotten what life without war is."

_Swilo System Shepard's POV_

Shepard walked over to Joker when her timer said they were ten minutes out.

"Joker are you reading anything?" asked Shepard

"No, it appears that this system is completely empty."

"Was this a false lead then?"

"No, Sekat was actually able to narrow it down to Hagalaz, and I know just where to look." said Liara, causing both Joker and Shepard to jump.

"Oh hey Liara, it's nice to see you again." Commented Joker

"It's nice to see you too Jeff."

"Liara you said you know where to find the Shadow Broker?" asked Shepard

"Yes, the signal originated in one of the storms of Hagalaz. I did the math; the Broker's Ship should be here in about thirty minutes."

"Alright let's go. Joker, tell Master Chief to be ready to go in five."

"Aye, aye ma'am."

_Thirty Minutes Later Master Chief _

"Hagalaz, the oceans boil during the day then snap freeze ten minutes after sun down." Noted Liara

John looked at the storm through the shuttles window, it was massive. Much larger than anything that he had ever seen so he asked, "Why does the Broker live in this?"

"His ship follows the sunset, completely undetectable in the storm unless you know where to look. But we can't stay outside for long; there is a constant lightening storm where the cold and warm air collides."

John watched as the shuttle came in for a final landing. When the doors opened he was the first one to jump out. John saw movement in the distance so he held out his hand.

"What do you see?" asked Shepard

"Something ahead was moving."

Shepard took the lead while John watched their six. It was quiet for ten minutes until John noticed several red drones start to advance on them.

"Maintenance drones" Shouted Liara

"Why are they attacking?" Asked Shepard

"They probably think we are debris from the storm." Answered Liara

John took this as a signal to fire so he fired a burst of his battle rifle; he was about to fire again when he noticed that it actually died from one shot.

"That was easy wasn't it; too bad not all enemies are like that." Noted Cortana

John silently agreed. Everything he had fought in this galaxy so far was surprisingly easy to kill.

The next half hour was brutal however, the squad had been attacked from all sides, they had to dodge lightening capacitors going off, and navigation wasn't exactly easy.

They reached a rather large door when Liara yelled, "There we can use that hatch to get."

"Can you get it open?"

"Yes I believe that…

John was getting tired of being out here in the storm so he approached the doors. He used his combat knife to make enough room to put his fingers between the doors and started to push it open.

Shepard started to help immediately, while it took Liara a minute t get through the shock.

The door finally opened, and as they walked in Liara sealed the door so that Shadow Broker forces couldn't follow them.

John could see out of the corner of his eye that Liara was giving Shepard a rather puzzling look.

Shepard took the lead as they started to search the ship. John was astounded by how many guards there were. As they fought corridor to corridor John got a feeling that the mercs were holding back for some reason.

The team was waiting to ambush the latest squad of Shadow Broker troops. As John had the best shields he waited in the middle of the hallway looking in the other direction. When the mercs got there they took the bait. One walked up right behind John unsheathing a knife in the processes. Before they could do anything else John turned around took the surprised asari's knife and stabbed her right in the gut, while Shepard and Liara finished of the other three.

Liara activated her omni tool, and then said, "We're approaching the prison block… and Feron."

Liara started to sprint towards the prison block, and Shepard screamed "Liara wait!"

Both John and Shepard took after Liara; John was starting to worry that they would run into an ambush. As the two rounded the corner they found Liara desperately trying to get in a door.

"He's in here."

Shepard walked up to Liara and helped her with the door while John took a look at the area right outside. It was a perfect spot for an ambush unfortunately.

_Liara's POV_

Liara was becoming more frantic with each passing second; she was so close to saving Feron. Two years, it took two years to find him. Now she could finally repay him for helping her save Shepard, for saving her.

There was a click as the door lock disengaged. Liara sprinted inside to Feron alive, but as strapped to some sort of chair.

"Feron"

"Liara"

"Hold on we're going to get you out of here."

"No"

Liara started to bring up a display for his chair when he was suddenly screaming; she stopped what she was doing and back away from the console.

"Feron"

"What the hell is the Broker trying to do to you?" asked Shepard

"The equipment is sensitive to tampering. This chair plugs into the Broker's info network. You have to shut off the power. Pull me out now, and my brain cooks."

"Do you know where we can cut the power?" asked Liara

"It won't be easy. You'll have to go to central operations."

Shepard asked, "What's the point of this cage?"

"I don't - aagh!" Feron said as the chair shocked him again

"It's a neural grounding rod. The medical equipment is to make sure he doesn't… expire. We have to shut this place down." Replied Liara

"Where did the Broker get the Mercs?"

"Raised his own private force. They're completely loy – aagh!"

Liara was feeling regret every time Feron's chair shocked him, but she was started getting irritated that Shepard wasn't hurrying up.

"Shepard we really don't have the time!"

"What do you know about the Broker?"

"He did this to me."

"I was hoping you'd know what he is."

"I never got a good look, but he's big. The guards are terrified of him."

"A Krogan?"

"I don't know, but not everyone who visits his office comes back out."

"Easy or not, we're all getting out of here."

"Good"

"Central operations is down the hall. You know the Shadow Broker's waiting for you, right?"

"I'm counting on it."

"We'll be back for you, Feron!"

"I'll try not to go anywhere."

Just then Liara heard footsteps coming from right outside the door.

"Shepard I think we have company." Noted Liara

Just then a loud explosion rang out, and the shockwave knocked her and Shepard down.

"What was that?"

Liara looked over to the Chief who was still standing and was holding something in his hand. Liara looked closer to see he had a detonator in his hand.

"Really Chief?" asked Shepard

He didn't say anything as usual but he put the detonator away and pulled out his assault rifle.

Shepard rubbed her temple and looked to Liara and muttered, "Well, that was unexpected."

Liara nodded and started after the Chief who had left the room, she heard several shots as she was about to leave. She winced at the Chief's take no prisoners mentality, but after all he told her she wasn't surprised.

As Feron had said the Broker's office was right around the corner. The Chief was walking towards the door when he pulled out his pistol and shot through the desk, Liara was surprised when blood sprayed out from behind it.

"How did you know that guard was there?"

"I heard him breathe."

Liara was about to question how could hear the guard breathing from ten feet away but she didn't want to push anything with him involved.

Everyone walked in guns pointed at the Broker, who was casually sitting behind a desk.

"Here for the drell, reckless even for you commander."

"That bombing on Illium wasn't exactly subtle."

"Extreme but necessary."

"No it wasn't! Neither was caging Feron for two years!" yelled Liara

"Dr. Tsoni, your interference caused all this. Feron betrayed me as soon as he handed you Shepard's body, the drell is simply paying the price."

"Someone was bound to come after you for working with the Collectors."

"It was a mutually beneficial partnership. Fortunately the Collectors offer still stands."

"It will pretty hard to run a base this size with no crew."

"Their replaceable, your arrival is barely an interruption. Enough talk, my operations are too crucial to be compromised by a traitor."

"You're quite confident for someone who has no where left to hide."

"You travel with fascinating companions doctor, thank you for bringing the super soldier, his sudden appearance makes him quite valuable, and his armor will net almost as much as Shepard."

"You're not putting a hand on anyone."

"It's pointless to challenge me asari, I know your every secret while you fumble in the dark."

"Is that right, you're a yahg. A pre-flight species quarantined to their home world for massacring the Council's first contact teams. This base is older than your planet's discovery. Which probably means you killed the original Shadow Broker sixty years ago, then took over. I'm guessing that you were taken from your world by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave… or a pet. How am I doing?"

At that last remark the Shadow Broker stood up, Liara was shocked by how massive he was. He suddenly roared, then broke his table in half and threw one of the half's at them.

Shepard tackled Liara out of the way, causing it to hit the Chief but he was only knocked down for a second. He got right back up and took cover behind one of the pillars.

The battle didn't start well, the Broker had them pinned by his Revenant but the Chief was a bold one. He ran across the room, and while the Broker focused on him Liara and Shepard brought down his shields and destroyed his armor. But before they could finish him off he activated some sort of advanced shield.

Liara fired several shots at the Broker and all they did was bounce off, she told Shepard "The shields kinetically sensitive; energy and projectiles are bouncing off."

"Then we do this the hard way."

Shepard ran over to the Broker and hit him straight in the face. The Broker tried to fight back but the commander was faster, landing another hit. However as Shepard went in for a few more the Broker activated a hand held shield which he used to send Shepard flying.

He started to fire yet again at the team, they managed to force him to use the shield again, but the Chief took him this time. The Chief butted him with his rifle and started shove the Broker backwards, Liara came over to help with her Biotics but he made the Chief fly straight into her.

She told the team, "If we can get him to bring up that shield again I've got an idea."

So they repeated the process of slowly bringing his shields down, he brought up the barrier but as Shepard ran towards him he deactivated it, and he turned his hand held shield into some sort of blade.

Shepard was too close to turn back so she tried to roll under the Shadow Broker, but he was prepared for this so he kicked Shepard just when she started. Shepard flew back and was sprawled on the floor, but as the Broker was preparing to stab her the Chief stepped in front of her and landed a blow to the Broker's chin. He reeled back but he used his other arm to grab the Chief by the throat lifted him up and stabbed him several times in the chest.

"Chief!" screamed Shepard

But the Chief landed another blow then pulled out his pistol and fired six shots point blank before the Broker dropped him. The Broker wasn't dead however, he was caught by surprise and dropped the Chief so he couldn't finish him off.

The Chief grabbed Shepard threw her to the side and yelled, "Liara now!"

She snapped back to focus and used her biotics to destroy the glass above the Broker, spilling its contents over him which caused him to explode.

Liara walked over to Shepard and helped her up. She seemed uninjured, Liara was about to tell Shepard thank you but Shepard started screaming, "Chief, are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm alright." Said the Chief

Liara noticed that he seemed to be painting, but had she been stabbed several times by the Broker like that she would have died, she was amazed that the Chief was able to speak and fight after that.

Liara heard a noise coming from the screen behind the Broker's desk, or what was left of it.

"Shadow Broker, this is operative Morad. We've had a momentary connection failure can you confirm status."

Liara walked over to the interface deep in thought. There was two options; the first telling everyone that the Shadow Broker was dead, or to become the Shadow broker.

"This is the Shadow Broker, the situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communication momentary. However we are now back online, resume standard procedures, I want a status report of all operations in the next solar day. Shadow Broker out."

Liara turned around to see Feron who said, "Goddess of Oceans, it's you. You … how?'

"Well everyone who's ever seen him in person is dead so…"

"You're the new Shadow Broker."

"Is taking over as the Shadow Broker really a good idea?"

"It was either that or lose everything, his contacts, his trading sources those will really help us. With the Shadow Broker's information network I can…I can give you-"

"I'll…check the power systems." Feron said, wanting to leave Liara with Shepard. The Chief walked with, probably trying to make sure that he didn't collapse or get hurt even more.

Liara started crying, finally being able to say, "It's over, it's finally… over two years."

Shepard walked over to Liara and gave her a hug saying softly, "It's alright."

Liara replied, "I've spent two years mourning you and Feron and now I've got you both back. I… let's see what you got. No safe guards or user restrictions, it's like he never anticipated anyone but himself being here. And it's all ours."

Shepard was about to ask if she wanted to come on the Normandy, but she knew Liara couldn't be the Shadow Broker and be on the Normandy at the same time so she asked, "What kind of information are talking about."

"I'm not sure; I'll have to go through his files. Come back later I'll try to have something useful for you. All I wanted was to save Feron but is it wrong that part of wants this. With the Shadow Broker's network I help you; maybe I can turn this operation into something better."

"Don't be a stranger this time."

"Come by-

Feron's voice came in over the comm. and said, "Shepard, Liara. Your friend just collapsed. I didn't notice his wounds before, but they're bad. He needs help now! We're by the prison block."

Shepard and Liara started to sprinting, Shepard yelled over the comm. "Joker its Shepard. The Chief has been hurt, multiple stab wounds, have Chakwas ready for us. Send Grunt, we're going to need him to help carry the chief."

"Aye, aye. Grunt is on his way." Responded Joker

_Two_ _hours later Shepard's POV_

Chakwas and Mordin had been operating on the Chief for an hour and a half now. It took twenty minutes for the Chief to take off his armor. The crew had offered to help but he said that it would take a week to explain how to do it. When he finally got off the armor off he had started to go to the Med Bay by himself saying that he could fix it himself. Chakwas ended up having to sedate him. The injuries had been so bad that Mordin had been pressed into service.

Shepard had been waiting outside the Med bay ever since.

Chakwas walked into out of the med bay and towards Shepard saying "Good news he'll live."

"Any complications."

"No, but I wanted to show you something that we found during the surgery."

When Shepard walked into the Med bay she was surprised by how much muscle the Chief had on him.

"Wow, he's more ripped than Jacob."

Chakwas chuckled then said, "That was my first thought too."

Chakwas walked up to the Chief then said "The amazing thing we found was under all that muscle."

Shepard and looked through the biggest hole to see his ribs. She responded, "The wounds were that deep, why didn't he go into shock?"

"I have no idea, but look at the ribs specifically."

Shepard looked closer and noticed that they had a metallic color.

"Chakwas what is wrong with them?"

"Nothing, in fact they are so strong that if he were to jump off a fifteen story building he wouldn't break a bone."

"How?"

This time it was Mordin who answered, "Genetic augmentation. Appears that he had extensive genetic modification done to himself."

"What has been improved?"

"What hasn't is the better question. His bones are basically unbreakable, increased bone and muscle density. Enhanced hearing and vision, ad his reaction time has been reduced by three hundred percent." Answered Chakwas

Shepard's eyes grew to the size of saucers then she asked, "Is there any way to give these sorts of improvements to everyone?"

Chakwas asked, "Mordin what do you think?"

"No impossible, first procedure has side effects, one of them reduced sexual drive. Second procedures need to be implemented during adolescence, would have been quite painful. Might be more problems, would need to consult with him first, doubt he will say anything."

Shepard immediately said, "Joker can you get me a link to Liara?"

"Yes ma'am. I'll link it in your cabin."

Shepard practically ran up to her cabin. When she got there she answered the call that was waiting for her.

"Shepard is there something you need?"

"You talked to the Chief on the way to the base, what did you talk about?"

"Mostly his past, he was a little distant but I don't blame him."

"Was there anything unusual that he mentioned."

Liara looked like she felt guilty but she said, "He told me that him and seventy four other children were kidnapped at the age of five or six to be trained as soldiers."

Shepard muttered, "Those bastards."

"Shepard what's wrong?"

"Mordin and Chakwas discovered that he has had extensive genetic augmentation, Mordin believes that the procedure was done during adolescence, and that it was quite painful."

Liara just shook her head. She then asked, "Is he going to be okay?"

"Yeah it appears that he will be fine. But I need to figure out how to get him to open up; I need to know what else has happened to him. Any suggestions?"

"Just don't try and force it, give it time."

"Thanks, Shepard out."

"Bye"

Shepard thought over what she just had heard, he was kidnapped and forced to be a soldier, then having to face a force of hostile aliens for about thirty years.

Shepard started to go down were she found the rest of the team waiting outside.

Garrus was the first to speak, "Is he okay?"

"Yeah he's fine. You guys see the footage of what happened?"

Nobody said yes so Shepard played the footage, it showed the Chief being picked up and stabbed by some sort of holographic blade several times. Then it showed how he shot the Broker six times in the face as a response.

"Tough bastard" remarked Zaeed

"I'll say" responded Garrus

"Shepard that's an Omni blade." Remarked Miranda

"What is an Omni blade?"

"It's a feature that the omni tool has always had but no one has really used it. Looks like the Broker had it upgraded though." Remarked Miranda

"Well it wasn't good enough." Replied Grunt

"It should have, Shepard that blade should have gone straight through, what stopped it?"

Shepard walked to the window and looked at Chakwas and Mordin as they finished up the stitches.

She responded, "It turns out that he has had substantial genetic augmentation. Among other things his bones are virtually unbreakable; I'm going to bet that is what stopped it."

Shepard glanced through at the Chief again; Mordin and Chakwas had just finished the stitches.

"I'm going to go check on him again, Miranda go tell Joker to start heading to the Citadel."

Miranda nodded and everyone else went off in their own little groups. Shepard was really happy that everyone seemed to be making friends; a suicide mission is not something one should go through alone."

Shepard walked in again to see Mordin and Chakwas cleaning up. Shepard noticed the Chief's lips moving so she hurried to the Chief's side.

He wasn't making a whole lot of sense but she was able to catch the words Halo and Flood. She decided she would ask him about that when he woke up, among other things. She took this chance to look at the Chief's face as he would probably hide it behind that helmet as soon as he woke up.

He had short brown hair, and very strong features. The feature that stood out the most was his skin, he was very pale looking.

"Chakwas, do you think that his skin is usually this white."

"Just a little bit darker but not much, I believe it's a side effect of spending all that time in his armor. After all this is the first time he has gotten out of it so far."

_Three hours later Tali's POV_

Garrus and Tali had stayed outside in the mess hall. They had spent about an hour catching up; and the second one was spent talking about the mission and the people Shepard had picked up.

Mordin suddenly came out of the med bay and Tali called out, "Hey Mordin is Shepard alright, I didn't see her come out?"

Mordin walked over and took a seat replying "Shepard is fine, she decided on waiting for the Chief to wake up; she passed out ten minutes later."

Garrus chuckled then said, "Looks like our commander has a soft spot for super soldiers."

Tali replied, "Shepard would have done the same thing for us."

Garrus quickly dropped the amused attitude and said, "I know Tali."

"Mordin, Shepard said that the Chief had extensive augmentations. What were they?"

Mordin went into detail, and having to explain certain things more than once. Both Tali and Garrus by the end were shocked by what they were hearing.

Garrus responded "Wow, that is one hell of an upgrade package, but I know that everything comes with a price."

Mordin nodded and replied, "Yes believe several flaws but found only two. First is a risk of lower white blood cells, second is reduced sexual drive."

Tali asked "There is something about this that bothers you isn't there."

"Yes, believe that augmentations can only be implemented in adolescence."

Garrus choked on the drink he was having and said "He got those when he was a teenager?"

Mordin nodded, and Garrus swore something his breath that Tali didn't catch.

Tali said "Thanks for the information Mordin."

Mordin nodded and headed up to his lab, probably to do some more tests, as Tali had learned early on that he never seemed to sleep.

"Garrus can you believe that?"

"I can't even imagine why somebody would do something like that."

"Neither can I."

_1 hour later Shepard's POV_

When Shepard woke up she was rather surprised to find herself in the med bay, but when she saw the Chief to her left she remembered why she was here. She looked over to see Chakwas running some sort of test.

Shepard stood and stretched and when she was done asked, "How long have I been out doctor?"

Chakwas didn't even seem surprised when she heard her voice and replied, "Four hours"

"Why didn't you wake me, my shift isn't over."

"Shepard when was the last time you slept?"

Shepard knew Chakwas had her beat so she didn't even try to argue further.

"Do you know when he is going to wake up?"

"The sedatives should wear off in a minute or two."

As on cue Shepard heard a groan from behind her.

She turned around to see the Chief rubbing his eyes.

"Well hey there, you managed to take a beating on the Shadow Broker's ship, you okay?" asked Shepard

"Yeah I'm fine."

Shepard heard Chakwas snort from the other side of the room.

"I told Shepard that you were going to live but at this point you aren't in that good of shape. Several torn muscles and all these muscles are almost burned to a crisp. You'll make a full recovery, those augmentations of yours are the only reason that you survived." Replied Chakwas

The Chief stood up put on the shirt and shorts Chakwas left for him, and then started to leave the room.

He didn't get far though when Chakwas asked, "And where do you think you're going?"

"To my quarters."

Shepard said "Chief you got stabbed repeatedly and just went through surgery, you are not okay."

"I know my limits."

"Chief I'll cut you a deal; if you can beat me in the ring I'll clear you for duty, but if you don't you have to go through any recovery program Chakwas comes up with until I say otherwise. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am. I guess I'll meet you in the cargo bay in ten minutes."

"Yep"

_Five Minutes Later Garrus' POV_

Garrus finished calibrating the new Thanix gun that Shepard had asked Garrus to get, it took a lot of resources to get but it was finally ready to go.

Garrus decided that it was time to take a break, but when he walked out the door he pretty much everyone on the deck at the elevator. He saw Kasumi in the crowd. He walked up to her and asked, "What's happening?"

"You didn't hear, Shepard and the Chief are going to fight in the ring that Shepard bought last time we were on the Citadel."

Garrus chuckled then replied "This is going to be interesting."

It took several minutes for an elevator to come to the crew deck that was actually empty, but when it did everyone crammed in. It wasn't comfortable but it was a rather short ride. When door opened on the engineering deck, Tali was standing right in front of Garrus.

Tali said, "I've been here for ten minutes waiting to go down one floor."

Garrus couldn't help but laugh and he could tell she was not amused by the way that Tali's eyes narrowed.

Thankfully the door closed before Tali could do anything to him. When the doors to the Cargo Hold opened Garrus was surprised by how many people were down here. Garrus even saw Joker in the corner collecting bet money.

_Shepard's POV_

Shepard was astonished that this many of the crew showed up, she was surprised that really anyone knew about this. But she figured out what happened as soon as she saw Joker in the corner.

"Joker shouldn't you be flying the ship?"

"It's fine, I have the Normandy on auto pilot and EDI will alert me if there are any problems. Do you really think that it was a good idea to wear those workout clothes?"

"You have a problem with my workout clothes?"

"No, the point is that no one does, especially some of the guy crew members, I've seen a lot of eyes looking over you, and when I think about it a lot of female crew members have been checking the Chief out. "

Shepard just chuckled.

"I forgot to ask, how come the chief isn't wearing a shirt?"

"He used one of the punching bags as warm up and the shirt ripped."

Now it was Joker's turn to laugh.

"Joker who has more bets on them?"

"It's about even; if the Chief wasn't just stabbed I think the betting situation would be different."

"Who did you bet on?"

"You kidding me, on one hand you have a super soldier and on the other you have a soldier who came back from the dead. How can I choose?"

Shepard chuckled again and walked back over to the Chief and asked, "You ready?"

"Just about looks like the whole crew is watching."

Shepard nodded ad asked, "Feeling the pressure."

He didn't answer but he did have a hint of a smile on his face.

Joker stood up, and walked to the edge of the ring, and yelled "Has everyone put down their bets?"

Nobody said they didn't so Joker signaled the two to begin.

"Don't let my good looks fool you Chief I have my share of scars."

He didn't reply but again he smiled, causing Shepard to reconsider her view of him being unemotional.

It took a little while before the two started exchanging blows but Shepard was realizing just how strong the Chief was, she wasn't going to be able to keep up her just take it strategy for very long. The Chief threw a very strong punch but Shepard duck and spun her legs causing the Chief to fall over.

As he was falling she brought up her knee to strike his head but when it did Shepard instantly regretted it. Her leg was throbbing and the Chief didn't even seem slightly fazed by that move.

He just got back up and waited for Shepard to move. Shepard swung her arm forward and when he ducked her other fist was waiting for him. Shepard landed this blow to his cheek so it didn't hurt that badly. It actually sent the Chief reeling for a second.

The Chief seemed to start to fight harder actually seemed to see Shepard as someone who could beat him.

_One hour later Tali's POV_

The match had been brutal so far, it was the last round and both Shepard and the Chief appeared to be barley holding on. Shepard had taken a beating in the first five rounds but the Chief got over confident and he in turn got a beating in the last four rounds.

Tali hadn't betted, and she glad she did so.

Garrus whispered to Tali, "What do you think is going to happen next."

She was about to answer when the fighting started to pick up. Shepard started it with several well aimed blows to the Chief's chest, but the Chief suddenly turned the tables when he made several quick jabs to Shepard's gut then knocking her feet out from under her. She landed with a thud, and seemed like she was having trouble standing up. People who betted on the Chief started heading towards Joker when Shepard got up and landed three punches to his face. Then he grabbed Shepard's right arm, pinned it, and then landed four blows to her abdomen.

Shepard pushed away stumbled for a bit then skillfully knocked the Chief off his feet again. However he pulled Shepard down with him and hit her one last time in the gut. But Shepard handed a head butt before he pushed her off him.

Both of them lay motionless on the floor. Everyone just watched for five minutes. Chakwas walked up and checked them both. She walked over to the edge and announced, "It seems they managed to knock each other out."

There were a lot of groans, and Tali couldn't blame them. That was a good match, probably the best she was ever going to see.

Tali walked over to Chakwas and asked "Need help there?"

"Why thanks Tali, just help me carry Shepard to the Med Bay Grunt will be here shortly to carry the Chief over."

**Hello there everyone, I know it has been a long time since I last uploaded. I apologize for this; I had a little bit of writers block, and all of my plans seemed a little stupid. I couldn't come up with any good plan so I just decided to go with the flow and this is the result. I don't ever plan on abandoning this story however as I have good plans for where my Lost Series will go. I hope you enjoyed, sorry for any grammar mistakes I missed and please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

Lost Soldier

Chapter 6: A revealing shore Leave

_Two hours Later John's POV_

When John woke up he could barely think. His head was throbbing so hard. John took around; he was in the Med Bay… again. His first thought was that this is the first time he had been in a Med Bay twice in one day. When he looked to his right he was surprised to see Shepard in the cot next to him passed out. He looked around for a change of clothes and lucked out when he saw a pair of new shorts and an intact t-shirt.

As soon as he tried to get up however he felt a pain in his chest. He looked down to see heavy bruising on his chest. All he could think about was how Shepard sure knew how to give a beating. He grabbed the clothes and slipped them on, he was relieved that they were a little bigger. Before his fight with Shepard he had noticed a lot of roaming eyes focused on him. A suicide mission wasn't the time for attachments.

"Chief what are you doing up, you should be resting."

John looked over to see Chakwas looking at him with a rather disappointed face.

"I'm fine."

"That's what you said last time, and you were far from it."

John noticed for the first time how much Chakwas reminded him of Dr. Halsey. She certainly reacted the same way to his disregard for his health.

"I wasn't stabbed this time."

"No you just took a beating from the Commander."

"I think she took more of a beating."

"Well I think she did pretty well considering your enhancements."

John frowned, he heard her talk about his augmentations when he woke up from the surgery but he hadn't paid attention to it at the time.

"How do you know about that?" he asked

"I saw your bones during the surgery, and then Mordin did an analysis of your DNA. We know about all of the upgrades, enhanced vision, denser muscle and bones, and of course your reflexes. He told us that he believed that the augmentations could only be applied to teenagers, is that true?"

He didn't answer; he just closed his eyes and thought back to the week he spent in that hell. Pain for at least a week, it felt more like an eternity, and how only thirty three of his friends came out intact thanks to the procedure.

"So I'm assuming it's true, and I bet Mordin was right when he said it was painful."

He nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us about it Chief?"

John turned around to see Shepard sitting up straight.

"It isn't exactly my favorite memory."

Shepard didn't say anything; she just looked into his eyes.

"Okay" she finally said

Turning the conversation to a lighter tone Shepard asked Chakwas, "Who won?"

"You two tied."

John didn't react but he saw Shepard make a smile from ear to ear.

"Something I should know?" he asked

She hopped out of her cot, walked up to him, stuck a finger in his chest and said, "You didn't win."

"So?"

"Our agreement was that you beat me, we tied."

John's brows arched downward, he knew what this meant, Shepard was actually going to force him to undergo physical therapy.

"That fight wasn't exactly far, I was just stabbed."

This only caused Shepard's smile to grow bigger, which didn't seem possible.

"So you admit that you weren't recovered from the stab wound after all."

John realized his mistake, rubbed his temples and groaned.

"So it's settled. Chakwas send me a report of recommended therapies after we get back from shore leave. Oh and Chakwas, see what you can do about those bruises. The Chief already stands out enough."

With that Shepard slipped on a t-shirt and some shorts and left the room.

He looked over to Chakwas who was chuckling. She activated her omni tool and waved it over the Chief's bruises.

"Well the swelling and discoloration should be gone in about twenty minutes."

"Is she serious?"

"Oh she is."

He groaned again and walked out of the room.

He was about to head down to the cargo room when he heard someone say Chief from the mess hall table.

He looked to find Garrus, Grunt, Tali, Zaeed and Thane eating. He walked over to find that they pulled a chair up just for him. Normally he would have stood but he was pretty sore.

He took a seat and when he did Zaeed congratulated him by saying, "God damn impressive, kicking the crap out of Shepard like that. Never thought I'd seen the day."

"Thanks but Shepard did just as well."

Garrus was the one to speak next remarking "True but no has done that to Shepard ever since… actually I can't think of a time, can you Tali?"

"Nope"

Thane asked "All joking aside are you okay, you took two beatings in less than a day."

"I'm fine but thanks for the thought."

Thane nodded while Grunt gave John a good smack on the shoulder.

Just then Shepard's voice ran out on the intercom, "Everyone, we will be arriving at the Citadel in half an hour. I'm giving you all one day of shore leave, and the Illusive Man has agreed to cover any and all fees. So have fun."

_Thirty Minutes Later Shepard's POV_

Shepard walked up to elevator, when it opened it seemed half of the crew poured out. When the elevator cleared out she went inside and pushed the button for the Cargo Bay.

When she got there she wasn't surprised to see the Chief working on his armor, she walked up behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders and whispered, "You know you are allowed to leave right?"

"I have more important things to do than go on shore leave."

"When was the last time you had shore leave?"

He didn't answer but that gave her all the information she wanted to know. She asked, "Are you going to waste the one time we are going to get shore leave on your armor?"

"It's not a waste."

She pulled him up to his feet and started to push him to the door, saying "Okay you need to get out and see the sights if you think that sitting down here by yourself isn't a waste of good shore leave."

She was surprised that he didn't resist. But she didn't want to give him any chance to escape so as soon as they were in the elevator she sent up to the CIC.

When the door opened she walked out, turned around and said, "Chief I order you to go and enjoy your shore leave, and to make sure you do I'm coming with you."

When they walked out of the airlock Shepard said "Joker, don't let the Chief in unless I'm here and I tell you to."

"Alright Shepard"

Shepard looked over to see that he had his arms crossed over his chest and he wore a frown.

"Come on Chief, relax. You might actually enjoy yourself."

He shook his head to say that he disagreed but she paid him no mind.

_John's POV_

John turned to look at the Citadel and was shocked to see that the Citadel reminded him of the Ark. It didn't have as many arms as the Ark and it wasn't nearly the size, but he couldn't shake off the similarity.

"You coming?" asked Shepard

He turned and followed her for the longest time. Their first stop was the Presidium. When John looked out he was actually pretty impressed. It seemed that the Presidium was the first true place that he had visited in a long time that seemed … peaceful.

"Great isn't it." Asked Shepard

"Yeah." Answered John

They didn't stop there though; Shepard took him to some club in the wards.

Shepard walked up to the counter and ordered two drinks. When Shepard gave it to him he stared at the liquid.

"Something wrong?"

"It's… green."

She laughed and replied, "Yep, strongest thing they have."

He usually didn't have alcohol but he realized that Shepard was right about not wasting shore leave. He gulped it down all at once. He vision started to get blurry.

"Chief you okay?"

He blinked a few times and his vision returned.

He put on a weak smile and said, "Yeah I'm fine."

The rest of the day was a blur, they went all over the station, or at least the parts that were repaired from the attack on the Citadel.

The Chief asked "How long have we been here."

"What getting bored already?"

He put his hands up defensively and replied, "No, I just lost track of time."

Shepard looked at her Omni tool and her eyes grew. She answered "We've been gone for six hours now."

John was about to note his surprise when somebody called out, "Shepard, Chief"

Shepard and the Chief turned to see Tali and Garrus walking over to them.

"Hey guys what have you two been up too?" asked Shepard

"Just walking around seeing what changed since the last time we saw it." Remarked Tali

"So what have to two been doing?" responded Garrus

"The same although Shepard and I got a drink." Answered John

John saw that the Garrus had either a rather large smile on his face or he was frowning, he couldn't tell. He wasn't able to read Turian expressions well, he still needed practice.

Shepard asked, "Have you guys seen anyone else yet?"

"Yeah we saw Grunt by Dark Star, guess who he is having drinks with. Mordin."

John was taken back, from what he knew Salarians and Krogan almost always hated each other thanks to the Genophage. He was surprised that Shepard had managed to get them to work together; he had no idea why they would drink together.

"No way." Shepard turned to John and said "Let's go, I have to see this."

On their way to Dark Star they overheard a terminal giving a report on Shepard, talking about how there have been sightings of her on Omega and how the Council denied she was still alive.

Shepard just chuckled and walked away with John following closely. They reached the lounge before long, when they entered they saw Mordin and Grunt sitting next to each other each with several empty glasses next to them.

Shepard walked up and said "Wow this wasn't something I was expecting."

Mordin looked up at Shepard then grabbed two more drinks and handed both John and Shepard one.

When John gulped it down he noticed something seemed wrong, but then again this was alien liquor, how could it feel right.

"Too strong for you?" asked Shepard

He shook his head a little when he vision clouded up, then responded, "No, I'm fine."

"What have you two been doing?" asked Shepard

"Talking some, drinking a lot." Answered Mordin

"What have you and the Chief been doing?" asked Grunt

"Walking around, and just a little bit of drinking." Answered Shepard

"See you two later." Said Shepard as she and John left the lounge.

_Mordin's POV_

Mordin watched as the two left, and when they left he said, "Thank you Grunt."

"That was wrong."

"Wrong for the right reasons."

"Was it doctor, what happens when Shepard finds out you did that to him?"

"She won't, unless you tell her of course."

"You can count on me to keep my mouth shut. I still believe you just made a mistake."

"I already explained to you why, you agreed with me then, you change your mind?"

Grunt didn't respond, he ordered a little Ryncol, drank it, then left.

Mordin couldn't blame Grunt for feeling like that, but he knew he actually did the merciful thing. He got up, then started to head to the Normandy.

_Shepard's POV_

She and the Chief took a look at a map, Shepard wasn't pleased that most of the Citadel was marked "Undergoing Repairs".

Shepard said, "Want to go find the rest of the team?"

He nodded and they took off. Shepard had no idea how she was going to find everyone but she had a good idea where to start. They took a shuttle to the Presidium and Shepard smiled when she noticed Samara meditating besides the lake.

Shepard took a seat next to Samara and stared out into the Presidium. She noticed that John walked over to the map.

"Quite a view isn't it?" asked Samara

"Yes it is." Shepard breathed back

Shepard looked over to see Samara look towards the Chief. Shepard arched her brow when Samara looked back at her.

"I think that you have made a good choice."

"In?"

"Him"

Shepard hadn't thought about it but she knew that she was starting to develop feelings for him.

"Yeah, I'm starting to fall for him but I don't even know his name."

"Yes but I think he cares about you more than you know."

"How can you tell?"

Samara chuckled, and then said "Well he did agree to stay you this whole time did he not?"

"Yeah but …

"Does he spend more time with anyone else?"

"No but ...

"Shepard you sound like you're in denial."

"No I'm … maybe." Shepard looked away suddenly, feeling ashamed of needing help to see this.

Samara stood up and helped Shepard up. Samara suddenly got serious and said "Shepard, we are going on a suicide mission. Don't waste what time we may have left."

Shepard nodded then walked over to the Chief who was still looking over the map.

_John's POV_

John had been looking over the map for about five minutes now. He had thought it would have been awkward to sit with Shepard while she and Samara talked.

"Hey, you have any idea where we should go next?" asked Shepard

He gave the map once last look and when he didn't find anything interesting he just shrugged.

"Well you want to go back to the Normandy then?" she asked

He nodded and they went to go find a taxi.

They climbed in a taxi but the driver said it would be thirty minutes before they would arrive. He had started to feel rather strange, he didn't feel sick, but he felt like someone else. He felt something inside of him, something primal. Every time he looked over to Shepard the feeling intensified, he felt lost. He knew this was worse than feeling weird though, memories had started to flood back recently about Halo, the Flood, the Captain and Commander, Johnson, and of course what was left of his team. He never had time to sort through all of it, and now he was paying for it.

"Something on your mind?" asked Shepard

He didn't say anything, as usual.

"Come on, talk to me."

He turned to look at her again, and again the feeling inside of him intensified. She stared right into his eyes, and he stared right back.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Shepard snorted and replied "That's what you always say when you're hurting, you ever notice that?"

He opened his mouth to tell her that wasn't true but he realized that most of the time he ever said that he was hurting.

"I do now."

"Then what is wrong?" she asked. Her looked into her eyes and noticed that she seemed very distressed.

"It's … you don't have to worry about me."

Shepard sighed, then responded "Let me in there, let me help you. Please"

"Alright."

She placed a hand on his shoulder and asked yet again "What's wrong?"

"I feel … strange, nothing I've ever felt before."

Shepard looked into his eyes yet again, but he turned away.

"What else is bothering you, I don't believe you feeling a little different would get to you like this."

"Nothing is getting to me, other than feeling a little different, I'm fine."

"Again with the 'I'm fine'." She retorted

"Shepard I'm not you, I don't get over things by talking about it. I need to work it out on my own."

"Chief you're kidding me right? Everyone needs to talk about what is bothering them, you may be a super soldier but every soldier has their limits, and you were in a war for about thirty years. You need help."

He was starting to get angry, and that never happened. He was always in control. Just more evidence that something was wrong, and as always he refused to accept it.

Before he could respond the taxi stopped. He looked out to see the Normandy through the glass. He got out of the car, helped Shepard out then paid the driver.

He started to walk towards the Normandy when Shepard said "No, you aren't getting away that easily."

He groaned, then turned around. He noticed that Shepard was really upset.

"Why do you care so much, why can't you just leave me alone!" he yelled, realizing too late that he did that.

"Damn it because I care about you!" Shepard screamed, and he noticed that there were tears going down her face.

John instantly felt regret. He had thought Shepard was worried that he wasn't going to be able to do his part, but now he saw the truth.

He walked over and embraced her. He felt her cry a little into his chest but he didn't care. He thought about how to fix this.

He didn't say anything; he knew that Shepard needed vent.

He felt the tears stopped and looked down. She was actually started to smile just a bit.

"That's a start I guess."

"Was that just an act then, trying to get me to open up?" he asked as he backed up. His mood suddenly soured.

Shepard's good mood suddenly evaporated, and she slapped him right across the face.

John's head reeled a bit; he looked back at her realizing that he deserved that.

"Don't you dare say that." She growled

That's when Shepard pulled him into a rather long kiss. What surprised John the most though was the fact he didn't pull away, he actually embraced it.

She pulled away after a bit and said "See, was that so hard?"

He didn't respond, he was thinking about what just happened. That would never have happened before he met her, even more proof that something was wrong … or maybe right.

He felt his hold on her tighten just a bit. He looked down into her eyes, searching for … something. For the first time he could remember he didn't know what to do.

"Shepard. You're right; maybe I do need to talk." He whispered

She smiled then responded "Told you so."

_Garrus' POV_

Garrus smiled a bit when he saw the two kiss, but he was also curious. Didn't Mordin say that the Chief's sex drive was lowered thanks to his augmentations? He told himself to go ask, after all this was very surprising. He waited for the two to go back into the Normandy before he dared speak.

"Well that was … surprising." He said

"I'll say" noted Tali

"I'm going to go talk to Mordin. My mind says I should be happy for Shepard, which I am but my gut says that something's wrong."

"How can you … yeah, you're right. I'm going to go get some equipment for the Normandy; I'll be back in an hour."

Garrus nodded and started heading towards the Normandy. When he got inside he peeked his head around the corner to see if Shepard was around. He saw her and the Chief get in the elevator. As soon as it left he started walking towards the lab. He was a little surprised to find Mordin taking a nap, he was about to go when he heard "Garrus, need something?"

"Its okay, I can come back."

"Don't worry, just finished nap. Something wrong?"

"Not really but I thought you said that the Chief's sex drive was rather low, thanks to his upgrades."

"It was yes. Why do you ask?"

"Because Shepard and the Chief were kissing outside the Normandy."

"Interesting, kicked in sooner than expected."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I added medication into one of his drinks. Should counter lowered sex drive for about six days, after that will need to administer the drug again. Until I come up with more permanent solution."

Garrus' felt his jaw drop. He almost yelled "You drugged him!"

"Of course, it was merciful."

"How?"

"Humans never meant to be that way. It changed who he was."

"What happens when Shepard finds out what you've done?"

"If she does she will either thank me … or kill me. But that is irrelevant, only people that are aware of this are you, me, and Grunt."

"Grunt?"

"He helped lure Shepard and the Chief. As well as you, though you didn't know."

"So that's why you two were having drinks together." Garrus said

"Yes"

"Does the Chief even feel anything towards Shepard?"

"Yes, drug does not create feelings just causes a greater reaction to them, in the Chief's case. Would you want the Commander to be heartbroken during assault on Collectors?"

Garrus didn't answer; Mordin did this for the right reasons, as hard as it was to admit this.

"You ... have a point."

Mordin nodded and went off to do some sort of experiment.

Garrus was somewhat disgusted with himself for agreeing with Mordin. But in a way he was actually doing those two a favor. He just hoped he wouldn't lose some sleep over it.

_Shepard's POV_

Shepard was a little angry at the Chief for what he had said, but she cared about him enough to let that slide. They went to the Cargo deck; she intended to make the Chief reveal something about him, even if it was just his birthday.

The elevator arrived and the first thing that the Chief did was to go look over his things. Though he hadn't said anything she knew that he was very paranoid, at least with his equipment. He never shared or even talked about it, though he rarely talked.

She went over to his cot and sat down waiting for him to join her.

He started to walk around the whole room, and Shepard was just a little curious.

"Something wrong?"

"You know that Miranda tried to bug this room, I just want some privacy."

Shepard could respect that, she smiled as she thought about when EDI had told her. As soon as she knew she went to Mirada's office and laughed about how she got caught. Miranda wasn't so amused though, her biotics started to flare so Shepard had gotten out as quickly as possible.

"Shepard, something wrong?" asked the Chief

"No nothing, before we start I have a question."

He didn't say anything so she just asked, "What do the words Halo and Flood mean to you?"

His eyes grew a bit and his skin grew even whiter. He responded "I don't know …

This sent Shepard over the edge; she got up and screamed at him "You agreed to talk to me, why if all you're going to is lie to me!"

He looked down at his feet and scratched his head, then responded "You're right I'm sorry. First where did you hear that?"

"You muttered them in your sleep, right after the surgery. What do they mean?" Shepard asked

"Well I guess I'll start with Halo." He said as he walked over to his cot and took a seat.

Shepard followed him and sat in his lap, waiting for him to gather his thoughts.

"Halo is a set of seven planetoid sized rings spread throughout my galaxy."

This caught Shepard off guard, if he was telling the truth it must have taken massive amounts of resources to create.

"They were designed by a race we called the Forerunners, an ancient race which used to rule the galaxy, but they were attacked by a race known as the Flood. The rings were designed by the Forerunners to destroy all organic life that the flood could use, including them."

"Why did they have to do that, why didn't they surrender."

"The flood would have wanted them to surrender, and it would have been the doom of everything. Eventually the Forerunners activated the rings, causing all organic life to be destroyed, well besides the Flood."

"How did that stop the flood then?"

"The flood needs organic life to survive."

"Why?"

"It will be better if I show you." He said and gently nudged Shepard off of him. He walked over to his armor, and put it on.

Shepard was a little curious as to why he was putting his armor on but Shepard trusted him.

EDI's voice came over the comm. "Shepard I'm routing the video to your quarters."

"Thanks EDI." Shepard was a little surprised; the Chief had only been inside his armor for about a minute.

Shepard stood up to see that the Chief was actually taking the armor off, she smiled. It seemed like she was having an effect on him after all. They waited for the elevator to come down, and when they got to her quarters Shepard noticed that John seemed rather surprised by the size of it. Shepard led him over to a seat then pulled up the video.

Shepard turned on the video, and sat down on the Chief's lap. She noticed that his grip on her was starting to increase, which suggested he was nervous. That made Shepard nervous, what could scare the Chief so badly.

The first part of the video was just showing several marines walking through some sort of swamp when somebody said "Stay close Jenkins."

Shepard looked towards the Chief and asked "Your name is Jenkins?"

"No"

Shepard shrugged but just continued to watch. It showed them entering some sort of base; the video was taking its sweet time though. However Shepard felt that something bad was going to happen. It happened when the group entered some sort of room; it was a big room, completely open. Then things started to go crazy, it showed some sort of creatures that looked like walking balloons attack. It cut to the Chief's view, she could tell because she saw the green armor. It showed him fighting taller versions of it. They wouldn't die; they just kept getting back up. The video started to show the multiple forms of the Flood, and each clip was from the view of the Chief. The video ended and Shepard was left there with a million questions.

She looked back at the Chief and said "I'm sorry; I shouldn't have pried into your past." She looked away from him, feeling regret for making him living this all over again.

"Shepard"

She didn't look at him, so he gently moved her head around so she would look at him.

"Chief, I had no idea."

"It's okay."

"No it's not; I just made you relive that nightmare all over again, because I was selfish." Shepard responded

"You're never selfish, you given up almost everything to save a galaxy that doesn't even believe you, I think you deserve to know something about me."

Shepard smiled and replied "Smooth talker."

He didn't respond with words but he did hold her a little closer.

"Well I guess if I'm going to start playing twenty questions I guess I'll start off with the basics. What's your name?"

He chuckled then responded "Lets save that one for later."

Shepard gave him the sad puppy dog face but he didn't break. So she continued "How old are you then?"

"Forty Five."

"Forty Five?

"Well that's my age technically. In reality a bit younger, cryo slows down aging."

Shepard thought to herself, "Wow I'm dating a man 'technically' fourteen years older than me."

"Hmm, what was your life like before you 'joined' the military."

"I don't remember."

Shepard looked up at him; Liara was right when she said he was a man who forgot what life without war was like.

"What is the earliest thing you remember then?"

"The meeting where I was conscripted."

Shepard thought long and hard to try and figure out a question that couldn't be involved with his war. She couldn't come up with anything.

"What was the most important thing that you did during the war?"

She looked up and he seemed to be deep in thought.

"When I almost destroyed the Ark."

"The Ark?"

"It was basically a factory for the Halos."

"How big was the Ark?"

"I was told about one hundred and thirty thousand kilometers."

That really got Shepard's attention. That was beyond massive, on a scale she couldn't even imagine.

"How did the forerunners ever build something like that?"

"I don't know."

"Is there anything that you want … or need to talk about."

"Us."

"Need or want?"

"Both"

"What about it?"

"This isn't something just to blow off steam, is it?"

Shepard looked up and asked "No its not, it's real. If you don't want this I …

"I want this."

Shepard looked at his face and ran her hand through his hair, and whispered "Good, I was starting to worry."

He didn't reply, same old Chief. She asked "So we're going to be dating and you won't even let me know your name, what do I have to do to earn that."

He sat up and said "Come back alive."

Shepard responded "Chief"

"Shepard"

Shepard leaned over; their eyes maybe an inch from each other's when she said "I promise"

Shepard started to close the gap when somebody knocked at the door. Shepard leaned back and mentally kicked herself for not telling EDI to make sure no one disturbed her.

"Stay here I'll be back." She whispered

She walked over to the door and when she opened it she was surprised to see Mordin there.

"Mordin what's wrong?"

He started to walk in and said "No time to explain."

He walked around the corner to see the Chief. He ran over to him and started to scan him with his Omni tool.

"Mordin what's wrong with him?"

"Medication he took doesn't mix with augmentations, about to go into cardiac arrest."

"Wait what!" screamed Shepard

"Shepard, go get a cart for him. Chakwas is preparing for surgery."

Shepard didn't need to be told twice. She ran into the elevator and set it to go to the crew deck. When she got there she sprinted as fast as she could towards the Med Bay. Shepard wheeled a cart back to back into the elevator. When the elevator opened she noticed that it had opened on deck two, she looked out to see Joker waiting for it. He looked rather surprised. He backed up knowing something was wrong.

The door was closing slowly, and Shepard was really starting to freak out.

She yelled at nobody in particular "Come on, come on. This can't be happening!"

The door finally opened to show Mordin struggling to hold the Chief up. Shepard helped Mordin put him on the cart and hit the button for the crew deck.

They wheeled him into Med Bay, and that's when Mordin said "Shepard its best you leave."

"No I can't."

"Shepard, please."

Leaving was one of the hardest things Shepard ever did.

She walked outside, to find Tali waiting out there.

"Shepard what happened?"

"Tali, he went into cardiac arrest, bad reaction to some medication."

Tali walked up to her and gave her a hug; Shepard lost all control at that point and started to sob into her shoulder.

"Tali, it's not fair." Shepard said

Tali just held on and replied "It will be alright."

Shepard didn't say anything more after that. She just kept crying.

_Tali's POV Three hours later_

Tali was beginning to worry, the Chief had been in surgery for three hours, and from what Tali could see Chakwas and Mordin had been working nonstop.

Tali looked to Shepard; she passed out from exhaustion and stress thirty minutes in.

Everyone had come at one point of another to see how things were going.

Tali decided that Shepard would need her when she woke up, so she had been waiting the whole time.

Tali felt something stir next to her and she noticed Shepard waking up.

Shepard got up, but then appeared to remember why she was down here. She walked over to the glass and watched as they worked.

"Tali come here, I think there almost done."

Tali walked over to see that Chakwas was just finishing the stitches.

Chakwas looked up to Shepard and smiled. Tali noticed that a moment later Shepard was actually inside the Med Bay. Tali decided to wait outside, to give them some privacy.

_Shepard's POV_

As soon as Chakwas smiled Shepard made a break for the door, she ran past Mordin and asked "Is he going to be alright."

"Yes I think he's going to make a full recovery, just a week or two in here is all that is needed now."

"Thank you, so much."

"You don't have to thank me Shepard."

"Yes I do, you've saved his life twice now."

Chakwas smiled then said, "I'll give you two some privacy."

Shepard went over to the Chief's side.

He opened his eyes and asked "You alright?"

"This isn't about me."

"I'm alive, this time anyway."

"Chief, please don't say that."

"Shepard…"

"No please, you don't understand. I've had to watch you almost die twice already. Please, don't."

"Alright" as he said this he reached out and grabbed her hand.

They didn't talk much, they didn't need too.

But then a thought hit Shepard, she asked "What's your ..."

"John"

Shepard smiled, then kissed his forehead.

"Thanks for the early present."

"You're welcome."

John eventually fell asleep. Shepard climbed onto his chest and fell asleep herself.

_John's_ _POV Five Hours Later_

John awoke to find Shepard on top f him. Seeing her like that made him smile, it made this thing whole accident worth it. He didn't move, afraid to wake her up. Eventually John actually started to drift back into sleep when he felt Shepard move. He looked up to see Shepard stretching.

She didn't notice he was awake, so he decided that he was going to surprised Shepard.

He waited for the moment that Shepard her head laid back down on his chest. He then quickly flipped them over, so he was on top.

He scared her pretty badly. She then wrapped her arms around his neck, and her legs around his waist.

"Well hello there John." She said, in a rather seductive voice.

"Am I interrupting something?" asked Chakwas

"Yes" was Shepard's reply

"Sorry to ruin the fun but Chief you really shouldn't be doing that much activity."

Shepard flipped them over this time.

But John had different plans; he grabbed Shepard then got out of the cot. He put her down on her feet then went to go put on some spare clothes.

"Chief you aren't leaving this Med Bay this time."

"Doctor I'm not in any trouble, I guarantee it."

"Really, how?"

"I've been through worse."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, I got my augmentations."

She didn't seem to be satisfied one bit, but for some reason she actually stepped aside.

"Alright Chief, but I'm going to ask that you go to Mordin at least three times a day so he can check for any anomalies."

"That's fair."

She nodded and unlocked the door.

Shepard walked up to him and grabbed his hand.

John turned to Shepard and asked "Do we have any weights?"

"Yeah, in the cargo bay."

"I'm going to go use them."

"Alright I'll just watch the show."

He grunted his approval and went for the elevator. When it opened Tali was inside.

"Chief, I thought that Chakwas said you were going to be out for another day?"

John turned to Shepard and said "I was?"

"I was asleep with you the whole time, how would I know?"

He shrugged and went inside the elevator followed by Shepard.

Tali looked towards Shepard and gave her a wink, then headed off to somewhere.

When they got down to the Cargo Bay it took a few minutes to get everything in order but he got started soon after that. He had been working for an hour when Shepard came and laid down on his chest.

He put the weight he was working with down and put his arms around her waist.

"Enjoying something?"

She smiled seductively and said "Yeah I am."

He chuckled, and was about to find the weight that he was using before when Shepard leaned in and planted her lips on his. He returned the kiss. After a minute or two of this Shepard leaned back and said "Wish I could stay, but I found out I have a few things I need to do."

"Like?"

"I promised Miranda that I would help her with her sister."

"Just tell me when you're ready to go."

"You're not coming."

"Why?"

"You just went into Cardiac arrest, I'm sorry but I'm not going to risk you dying."

"I'll be fine."

"Yeah you will be fine… on the ship."

"But…"

"Commander's orders."

_Shepard's POV_

It took all of Shepard's will power to leave. When she got in the elevator she sent it towards the CIC. However instead of going to the galaxy map she went towards Mordin's office. And as always she found he was working.

"Mordin, can you explain what happened?"

"Medication enters bones to self replicate. Normally harmless but medication couldn't enter."

"Because of the augmentations."

"Yes, so the medication started to self replicate inside muscle tissue, surprised he took so long to go into cardiac arrest."

"Mordin, what medication was he taking?"

Mordin didn't answer, and that scared Shepard, he never ignored a question.

"Mordin what was he taking exactly."

"Medication that cancels side effect of augmentations."

"Which one?"

"The lowered sex drive."

"Why wasn't I aware of this, why is he hiding this from me?"

"He isn't, he doesn't know."

Shepard's mood suddenly grew dark. She backed up to the doors of the room and hit their emergency lock down button. Once they were sealed she screamed "What the fuck do you mean he wasn't aware! What have you done?"

Mordin proceeded to put his equipment away. Once he was finished he answered "Put medication in his drink, had good reasons for doing so."

She put her face a mere inch from his and asked "What reason was good enough?"

"I did this to help you."

Shepard retorted "Me, what have you done for me other than create something that isn't real!"

"Medication doesn't create feelings, just causes greater reaction to them. Made what you two are possible."

Shepard didn't say anything, just stared looking to see if Mordin would flinch, he didn't.

"We'll discuss this later, but if you're going to endanger my boyfriend then you better let me know about it."

Shepard turned around, deactivated the lockdown and almost ran out of the room.

This was so unreal to her, Mordin had almost killed him; what was she going to do? She looked up and remembered her promise to Miranda.

"EDI how long will it take to reach Illium from here?"

"Two days."

"Alright let's go."

Shepard went up to her cabin; she was exhausted from Mordin's revelation. _Mordin's POV_ Mordin was actually surprised by Shepard's actions, he had expected to her to kill him. The door opened to show Garrus with his assault rifle drawn. "Doctor you okay, I was told there was screaming in here." "Fine, thank you though. Shepard was less than pleased with my actions." Garrus put his sniper rifle away, then responded "She found out?" Mordin nodded. "Wow I'm surprised she didn't kill you." "Agreed" "Well what is going to happen to the Chief now?" "I was able to come up with safer solution, but will need to reapply twice as often." "Does it have any side effects?" "Yes like the one before it dramatically increases aggression." "Great an unstoppable killing machine with even more aggression, is this a good idea?" "Chief shown incredible restraint, will be fine." "Okay then, any progress made on a permanent solution?" "Yes, I believe that it will be complete in two days." "So fast?" "Yes, discovered what was causing 'side effect'?" "Which was?" "Catalytic Thyroid Implant." Mordin spat "What bothers you so much about this?" "Any doctor would have seen that this would have happened. Believe the reduced sex drive was there on purpose." "So it wasn't really treated as a side effect more as another upgrade." "Exactly." Garrus noticed that this was really starting to bother Mordin, so Garrus decided to leave him to his thoughts. _John's POV Two days later_ John was starting to get bored, Shepard left an hour ago, and he was confined to the ship. He had thought about leaving but when he started to back some of his stuff EDI alerted him that Shepard ordered her to confine him to the Ship. He looked over his armor; it still had most of the holes that the Broker had made. He immediately set off to fixing it. It was slow work but he was making progress, he was able to fix the biggest breach in about forty minutes. Just as he started work on the next one he heard the elevator open. "Yes" he called out. "Good afternoon Chief, I just came down here to get a few readings." Answered Chakwas He looked over to see Chakwas fiddling with a rather large needle. "Something tells me you here for more than just readings." Chakwas chuckled and replied "What gave me away?" Chakwas did a quick scan of him, and looked pleased by the results. "Well it appears that your wounds are doing just fine, now for the shot." He held out his arm, and he felt the small prick of the needle. "Anything else doctor?" "No … wait Mordin wanted to see you." He was a little surprised but didn't voice it. He stopped working on his armor and went immediately to Mordin's lab. When he arrived Mordin was waiting for him. "Good, now we can begin." "Begin what?" "Treatment" "Let's get this over with." "One shot is all, but believe this will be painful." John extended his arm and he again felt the prick of a needle. But that wasn't it, what felt like fire started climbing up his arm. The feeling quickly spread throughout his whole body. He blocked it out though, and in a few minutes the feeling was gone. "Be aware; believe this treatment will increase aggression." He nodded and left. The Chief was back down in the cargo deck in no time, and was again working on his armor. That was until Joker said over the intercom "Chief, I have a message from Miranda for you." "On my way." Was all he said before he sprinted for the elevator. When he got up there he noticed that Joker was incredibly tense. "What is it?" Joker hit the play button. "Chief it's Miranda. Our shuttle was shot down. Grunt and I were knocked out cold. When we woke up Shepard was gone, we were following a trail of bodies when we found a transmitter. Shepard was injured and they are probably going to kill her. We trying to get to her but the mercs are slowing us down. I've uploaded their coordinates, you need to hurry!" John never ran faster. He had gotten his armor on in five minutes and was out of the Normandy in another two. "Cortana" Cortana started laying a map of waypoints. The Chief was running at least thirty kilometers an hour, so he was gaining a lot of attention. He was finding that he was slowing down dramatically as he was constantly dodging people. Having to slow down, then moving around them. But he figured out a solution. He stopped and fired his weapon in the air. Everyone scattered and he was able to go at top speeds. John eventually found himself at a ledge over some sort of cargo transfer site. He looked down to see an eclipse soldier hitting someone with the butt of her gun. "Who the hell are you working for?" screamed an asari, he guessed she was in charge He heard "I'm going to warn you one more time. If don't leave my boyfriend is going to find us and is going to kill you all." "I think we'll take our chances." "I was hoping you would say that." John decided that this was probably the best time to strike. He took several steps back and started running as fast as he could. He jumped over the edge and was going to land right on top of them. _Captain Enayla's POV_This was going nowhere; they hadn't managed to get anything from the prisoner. She was considering just killing her now, she had killed thirty of her people before somebody managed to shoot her a couple of times in the chest. "Who the hell are you working for?" she asked yet again. "I'm going to warn you one more time. If don't leave my boyfriend is going to find us and is going to kill you all." "I think we'll take our chances." "I was hoping you would say that."

She was about to kill her when she heard several loud thuds.

"What was that?"

She turned toward the prisoner who was looking up, and smiling.

Enayla looked up to see someone in green armor falling towards them.

"Oh shit!" she screamed

Everyone looked up just as it landed. It rolled under around her, and then she felt a stabbing pain. When she fell over she noticed that there was a knife sticking out of her side, then her vision turned black.

_Shepard's POV_

Shepard watched as John tore the mercs apart. He had stabbed the leader in the side. He grabbed another one by the head and shoved him into the wall at full strength. The merc's head was crushed between the wall and John's hand. He broke another's neck then shot the last one in the throat. She watched as he fell to the floor, chocking on a bullet and his own blood.

Shepard looked down at her own injuries. He had two holes in her chest, both had gone straight through. And blood was slowly seeping out.

"Shepard!"

She looked up and smiled as he crouched by her.

"John"

He pulled out some sort of can, and said "This is going to hurt."

He injected the tip into her wounds and pulled some sort of trigger.

Something started pouring into her wounds, and Shepard screamed.

He did the same with the other wound but she was too tired to scream again.

"Chief, Shepard!" screamed Miranda

She crouched beside her and scanned her with her omni tool.

"What is that stuff in the wound?"

John simply said "I'll explain later."

He pulled Shepard to her feet, and to Shepard's surprise she didn't feel so bad.

"Where is Niket?" asked Miranda

Shepard looked at her feet. When she had entered the room a man the asari leader had referred to as Niket started to leave. And since they were talking to each other Shepard knew he was a traitor.

"Miranda … Niket was working with the mercs."

Miranda's eyes shot wide open and she got into the nearest elevator and sent it on its way.

"We have to go, she will kill him." She said

Shepard realized she could stand, but she could hardly walk. John helped her over to the elevator Miranda used. When it came back Shepard hacked the elevator and set it to go to its last destination, and they were off.

They arrived a second too late because a gun shot rang out when the door started to open. Shepard was pleased to find that Miranda had shot Niket's leg, Miranda walked over to them and said "Niket is out of the way. But I want to make sure my sister is safe."

"Of course."

It took ten minutes to find Miranda's sister but when they did Miranda tried to just leave. Shepard convinced her to go talk to her, and she was glad she did. Miranda actually looked happy for the first time since Shepard had met her.

When they got back to the Normandy, Chakwas had looked over her wounds and said "How come you guys keep coming back?"

Shepard smiled weakly, then Chakwas asked "Chief what is this stuff?"

"Biofoam. It will break down in a few hours."

Chakwas shrugged and said "Okay then, Shepard as soon as it starts to break down come see me."

Everyone left, leaving the two alone.

"John, thank you." Said Shepard as she embraced him.

"You don't need to thank me."

"Yes I do."

John took off his helmet and said "Shepard, I'm coming with you next time."

"But…"

"Shepard, I'm coming, it's final."

"Alright then."

"Well I'm going to go finish fixing this armor."

He walked away and Shepard was left alone. Shepard didn't mind, she knew she could go down and visit him anytime.

She walked down to Miranda's office. She was staring out her window.

"Shepard did I do the right thing by letting him go?"

"Killing people isn't always the answer."

"Yes but what if he tries going after Oriana again?"

"Don't worry Miranda; I think you gave her a big head start."

Miranda chuckled and replied "Yeah I don't think that he will be walking very soon, let alone chasing her."

"I'm glad I could help."

'Shepard … thank you."

"Anytime."

Shepard left Miranda's office in a great mood, Shepard had been able to help and Shepard had a feeling that Miranda was now focused on the mission.

"One down."

**Hey guys, I'm assuming that you are just a little surprised that I updated so quickly. Hopefully this will become a regular occurrence. Well I have to say this is going to probably be the longest author note that I'm going to write. We have a lot to talk about.**

**First of all last update there was a match between Shepard and John, and some of you didn't understand my reasoning behind the double knockout.**

**Reasons that I thought this made sense were:**

**The Chief was just stabbed repeatedly by a yahg.**

**Shepard is an N7 commando and a Spectre. Give Shepard some credit.**

**She has implants that Cerberus gave her, one of which is her decreased reaction time (Adrenaline)**

**The Chief got slightly over confident; some of you say that he doesn't get overconfident. But in my story Cortana remarks that everything in this reality is easy to kill to which the Chief agrees. This happens after he kills one of the drones on the Shadow Broker's ship. It hints at overconfidence.**

**This is my reasoning behind the result, but I'm not mad at anyone who disagrees, I was actually expecting worse.**

**Second some of you might disagree with me for having Mordin drug the Chief; this was the only way that I could see to even start a romance between Shepard and John. **

**Third is the fact that the Chief's personality is much more open, well some of the time. One of things that convinced me that he would be more open in this situation is the fact he isn't in charge. In First Strike John remarks that he wish he could join his friends when they were relaxing and making jokes. He believes he has to keep his distance to be a good leader. Plus any time he is with Shepard isn't really going to be the Master Chief we know; after all he is dating Shepard now.**

**And finally I know some of you are going to be confused as to why I seem to be trying to kill both John and Shepard. The answer to that one is simple … it would be boring if nothing went wrong. **

**If anyone has any questions regarding anything feel free to PM me. Also if anyone has any suggestions PM me, and we can hopefully discuss your ideas. **

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I encourage you to review. **


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